Chapter 63: Before the Blade Fell

However, the keyhole was too small, making it completely useless.

He absolutely couldn’t let Jiang Yan commit murder; once a person was killed, his life would truly be ruined!

[Host, how about exchanging 50 points for lock-picking tools?]

“Exchange!” Mu An gave the order, and a key materialized in his hand. He panicked and unlocked the restraints on his hands and feet, his exhausted body starting to pant after just two steps.

The key provided by the system was even capable of opening the front door.

He didn’t even have time to look for shoes, running barefoot and wild down the corridor and sprinting at top speed in the direction guided by the system.

***

Inside the basement, bright lights illuminated a scene of utter mess.

Su Jicheng lay in a pool of blood, countless cuts across his body oozing blood. With terror filling his eyes, he looked at the person walking closer and closer with a knife, issuing ragged, hoarse pleas for mercy intermittently.

“I really know I was wrong, please… let me go, I beg you!”

Jiang Yan’s hair hung down slightly, his smiling eyes pressed flat. He looked at Su Jicheng with as much emotion as one would look at thin air—completely devoid of feeling.

Listening to Su Jicheng’s pleas for mercy, he slowly squatted down. “You forced my An’an away.”

Hearing this, Su Jicheng shivered all over. He truly had no idea who this “An’an” was, but he knew that whenever Jiang Yan uttered this sentence, if he failed to provide a satisfying response, he would face retaliation.

“I… I really don’t know any An’an.”

“Nonsense, you do know him.” Possessed like someone in a trance, Jiang Yan used the tip of his knife to gently lift the other’s chin. “If it weren’t for you, An’an wouldn’t have exposed himself hiding in my room; An’an wouldn’t have ended up in the detention center because of your hitmen, and he wouldn’t have vanished.”

“Ah!” A sharp blade plunged viciously into Su Jicheng’s shoulder, causing him to bare his teeth in agony.

“If not for you, he wouldn’t have vanished. If not for me, he wouldn’t have vanished,” Jiang Yan muttered under his breath, pressing the blade tip right against Su Jicheng’s chest.

“If I kill you, I can enter the detention center. Perhaps, I can find the secret behind An’an’s disappearance.” A faint smile slowly bloomed on his indifferent face.

Reflected in Su Jicheng’s eyes, it looked like a life-claiming fiend. “No! No! You can’t kill me! You can’t…”

Jiang Yan slowly raised the blade, and the moment right before it was about to plunge downward, Su Jicheng slammed his eyes shut in terror.

Thud—

A pink figure tumbled violently down the stairs. With a loud smack, Mu An hurriedly grabbed the handrail to steady his body.

His limbs spread out like an ‘X’ as he sprawled across the steps. “Don’t—don’t do it! Let’s talk this out like civilized people!”

Mu An clutched the back of his head in agony as he rose. “Mother of mine, the back of my head…”

What a fine basement—were they setting a trap by not putting lights on the stairs?

With one eye half-open, he was greeted by such a bloody scene, scaring him so badly his eyes flew wide open.

Jiang Yan stood holding a blood-stained blade, its sharp tip suspended over Su Jicheng’s chest, while Su Jicheng was covered in gore.

If not for Su Jicheng’s terrified, wide-open eyes, Mu An would have thought he was dead.

Jiang Yan stared unblinkingly at Mu An, standing like a loading robot whose expression refused to shift a fraction.

Meeting Jiang Yan’s eyes, Mu An felt an inexplicable tightening in his chest.

Jiang Yan dragged the blood-stained knife as he slowly straightened his posture.

Mu An gripped the handrail and walked down the stairs. With every step he took, Jiang Yan’s eyelashes fluttered.

With every step Mu An took, the scent of blood lingering at the tip of his nose grew heavier by a fraction.

Tap—blood dripped from the tip of the blade onto the floor, blooming into a small red flower.

Mu An’s eyelashes trembled slightly, his eyes looking as though they had been stained with ink—moist and deeply dark.

Jiang Yan lowered his gaze to look at Mu An before him, as if confirming something. The hand holding the knife trembled slightly from the force, dripping irregular bloodstains onto the floor.

The desolate basement infinitely magnified the breathing sounds of those present, so chaotic it left their minds completely blank.

“Jiang Yan.” Mu An’s throat inexplicably turned hoarse and dry, and he expended a great deal of effort to swallow away that inexplicable obstruction.

His gaze lingered on Jiang Yan’s eyes, meeting those pitch-black pupils in a silent speechlessness.

What was he supposed to say?

Thud—the cold, gleaming blade slammed heavily onto the ground.

Mu An’s eyelashes trembled, and he reached a hand out toward Jiang Yan. Countless phrases flashed through his mind, but before he could manage to say anything, a warm, heavy hand covered his own—it carried a weighty substance, yet it instantly anchored his hesitant, wavering heart.

“An’an.”

Jiang Yan’s raspy voice vibrated through the air with a tremor.

“I am.” Mu An gripped the other’s hand back with all his might.

Faint fragments of light surfaced in Jiang Yan’s desolate eyes, yet his brow slowly knit together, looking as though he harbored endless grievances he wished to pour out.

He walked closer step by step, closing the gap between them, and slowly, clumsily, placed a hand on the back of Mu An’s head.

Mu An didn’t stop him. The man stroked his hair with extreme gentleness, as if confirming his existence.

“Does it hurt?” Jiang Yan looked into his eyes, which were as moist as spring rain, as though a breath of wind could cause water droplets to roll down.

Mu An’s heart felt as though it had been bitten by something, aching terribly.

“It hurts.”

***

“The CT scan shows no issues with his head,” the doctor said, earnestly reviewing the scans.

“Then why does he feel pain?”

Hearing this, the doctor turned back to glance at Mu An, who was being protected in a chair by Jiang Yan.

Mu An smiled awkwardly at him. “It only hurt at first; it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Who would have thought that a moment of playing the delicate damsel would end up getting him dragged straight to the hospital, with the other refusing to believe he wasn’t in pain no matter what.

Mu An tugged at Jiang Yan’s sleeve to signal that he was fine, and Jiang Yan naturally grasped the mischievous hand.

“Doctor, he fell down the stairs. Shouldn’t we keep him for observation for a couple of days?”

Accustomed to family members worrying excessively, the doctor didn’t argue the point. “You can hospitalize him if you want, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. If you’re truly that worried, you can observe him at home for a few days and come back to see me if he feels uncomfortable.”

“Besides, your younger brother looks malnourished; it’s best to feed him something to build his health back up. Sometimes physical weakness can cause dizziness.”

“Not a younger brother,” Jiang Yan chimed in to correct him.

The doctor paused, casting a look over the two of them. The man standing was bundled up from head to toe, leaving neither cap nor mask behind, though one could tell he was quite young. The man sitting in the chair looked somewhat slender, pale-faced with exceptionally bright eyes.

As the two of them huddled together, a spark of realization struck his brain like lightning.

“Oh!”

Upon returning to the car, Mu An let out a deep sigh. “I told you there was nothing wrong.”

Flipping through nutritional recipes on his phone, Jiang Yan glanced at Mu An upon hearing this, his slightly curved eyes brimming with tender affection. “We still can’t lower our guard. Tell me what you want to eat later, and I’ll make it for you.”

Mu An parted his lips. Cooking for a fan? That’s kind of interesting.

The car started up slowly, the scenery outside the window receding at high speed. The cabin echoed with soothing light music, and everything felt so peaceful.

Jiang Yan’s eyes carried a smile, the corners of his lips slightly curved as he expertly steered the steering wheel, acting as though the person in the basement just moments ago hadn’t been him at all.

This current peace felt much more like the calm surface of the sea before a storm.

Mu An had no idea how to explain his sudden disappearance, nor did he know what kind of relationship he and Jiang Yan shared now.

How was he supposed to face Jiang Yan anyway?

The moment he turned his head to look at Jiang Yan, the other acutely turned his gaze back to meet his, the tender radiance in his eyes making it seem as though nothing had ever changed.

Yet it also felt as though everything had changed.