Chapter 148: Extra - Mu Si × Bo Yu 3

At first, Bo Yu did not understand. What did it mean to lose one's freedom?

He sneered as Mu Si placed him on the bed. "I have always been the one to control the fates of others. How dare you presume to tell me what to do?"

Mu Si’s bed was small and crude, though it was kept clean and tidy. Perhaps from being steeped in his scent for so long, there was a faint, milky sweetness to it, like a bakery.

"I am not telling you what to do," Mu Si said, casually pulling out a thick, complex book. "I am only doing what I want to do."

The bookshelf had gone untouched for years. He wiped the dust off the cover with a wet wipe before placing it on Bo Yu's lap and opening it to the first page. "Amuse yourself for a while. I’m going to take a shower."

Bo Yu: "?"

"Do you have any idea who you are talking to?"

Bo Yu lifted his gaze coldly. Just then, Mu Si stripped off his shirt with one hand, revealing a lean, fluid back covered in thin muscle, marked by a few lingering, unhealed wounds.

He hadn't been lying. He had truly suffered when he arrived.

"I know," Mu Si said with a click as he unbuckled his belt. Seeing Bo Yu avert his eyes sharply, he curled his lips in a silent, dark smile, his eyes turning deep and gloomy. "I’m talking to you, sir."

The bathroom door clicked shut, and the soft sound of running water followed.

Bo Yu looked at the water on the coffee table and felt his throat grow parched. He instinctively reached for his wheelchair to get a drink, only to realize that Mu Si had not brought it up for him.

"That bastard..."

Without his wheelchair, Bo Yu was immobile. It was just like the day he woke up in the hospital, unable to even make it to the restroom.

"..."

So, when the bathroom door finally opened, the first thing Bo Yu said was, "Go and bring up my wheelchair."

Mu Si emerged, damp with steam, his black bangs dripping water. He tossed his towel onto the back of a chair with one hand. "Need to use the bathroom?"

"No," Bo Yu frowned, repeating his command. "Go and get my wheelchair..."

Mu Si asked, "Then what do you need?"

Bo Yu’s patience was wearing thin, his voice growing sharp with displeasure. "I told you to go and bring up my wheelchair!"

His icy gaze locked with Mu Si’s in the air. Mu Si turned back to retrieve his towel and continue drying his hair, completely ignoring the demand.

Bo Yu: "..."

A minute later.

Bo Yu took a deep breath. "Water."

Mu Si finally turned, poured a glass of water, and approached him, trailing the scent of cold mint. "It’s a bit cold. Taste it; if you don't like it, I'll go warm it up—"

*Splash—*

Mu Si instinctively closed his eyes. The entire glass of cold water drenched his freshly dried hair. He hadn't known Bo Yu was coming, so the room wasn't heated; in this weather, the cold made him shiver slightly.

Bo Yu glared at him coldly. "Are you incapable of understanding human speech—"

Before he could finish, he was pinned to the bed by a hand around his throat. He met Mu Si’s pitch-black eyes, which held the density of a dark night. Water dripped from the tips of Mu Si’s hair, and his voice, laced with the sharp clarity of mint, uttered three words:

"Lick it clean."

Bo Yu was incensed. "What did you say?!"

"I said lick it clean." Mu Si repeated, devoid of emotion, his dark eyes fixed on him. "Didn't you want water? Lick it."

He leaned down close to Bo Yu, the droplets from his hair rolling onto Bo Yu’s face, only to be wiped away with a look of near-disgust.

Bo Yu said coldly, "Before my patience for you completely vanishes, go contact my bodyguards to come here, or else tomorrow you can wait to be dragged back by me..."

Perhaps the timing was wrong. Bo Yu did not continue with his harsh threats. Or perhaps he himself didn't know what he would do if he dragged him back; he seemed tired of punishing them, as they never realized it was meant to teach them how to grow.

Just like his own lost, younger self, he didn't understand why doing wrong required punishment, but he had been forced to grow up under oppression, numb and accustomed to it.

"Dragged back for what?" Mu Si asked in pursuit. "Locked in a basement? Locked away?"

"I never locked you up," Bo Yu refuted coldly.

"That’s because I didn't want to run. If I wanted to run, would you let me go?"

Bo Yu did not know the answer to that question. He had once personally granted this child his freedom—perhaps out of indifference, or perhaps to satisfy him—but regardless, he had once indulged Mu Si.

The next second, Mu Si let him go. The soaked figure took a glass of water to the kitchen to heat it up.

"You know what's good for you," Bo Yu sat up, propping himself up, thinking that Mu Si was just young and restless, and the punishment had already been dealt. "Go and bring up my wheelchair!"

Mu Si let out a soft scoff upon hearing this. "No response means a refusal, don't you understand, sir?"

So, his earlier question had also been met with a refusal.

The place that the young Mu Si had fought so hard to stay in was a place Bo Yu never wanted him to remain in the first place—even if he left, there would just be another Mu Si. Bo Yu had never wanted him, not from the very beginning.

"Having been away from me for so long, have your wings grown stiff?" Bo Yu’s expression turned frigid; the repeated boundary-crossing had made him deeply dissatisfied.

He hadn't expected this to be just the beginning.

Mu Si walked toward him slowly, carrying the glass of water, which was now steaming slightly. Then, just as Bo Yu opened his mouth, he poured it over his face in the exact same manner.

Bo Yu: "You bastard... Ngh."

The glass fell to the floor, rolling away with a crystalline sound.

Bo Yu’s lips were fiercely sealed. The warm water trickled down his neck, soaking his pristine shirt through completely, leaving him looking as disheveled as if he had just been pulled from the water.

"Yes, my wings have grown stiff."

He heard Mu Si whisper this into his ear.

This might have been the first time Mu Si had been so cruel to him. Even though the water he had returned was warm, he lowered his head and caught every droplet with his lips. "Can't you feel it, sir?"

"..."

Bo Yu’s amber eyes blazed. "What exactly do you want to do?"

This was the second time. Mu Si had committed an act of insubordination, forcing his will upon him against his consent.

"Why do you never listen to me seriously? Not even once." Mu Si looked down at his clean, soaked shirt, his long fingers slowly and methodically unbuttoning it. "I told you when I first walked in: I only do what I want to do."

"..."

"..."

Bo Yu was not short in stature. He was a beautiful child favored by God, his superior genes giving him a perfect frame, every inch of his skin possessing an aesthetic grace. But he was also a child abandoned by God.

He could not resist what Mu Si was doing to him.

"If you dare, I will kill you."

Above him, the low-quality, warm yellow light cast shadows. Those amber eyes remained cold and gloomy, yet they shimmered with a near-fragile moisture.

"Then kill me."

Mu Si looked down into his eyes. His own heart had been wounded too many times; it was so scarred there was no room left for another blade.

He lowered his head and pressed it against his ear, feeling the man who was usually so high and mighty finally crumble in despair because of him. "Mu Si!!!"

"Mm."

Mu Si kissed the tears from the corner of his eyes, almost with pity.

"You saved my life, so if you want to kill me, just do it."