PTGWD Chapter 13: Fallen

Fang Xingzhou found himself unable to think rationally.

Or rather, something was preventing him from thinking calmly. There were many obvious loopholes in Lu Jianchuan’s words. For example—why did the trap have to rely on marriage as bait? Once such a conspicuous trap was exposed, it would easily cause public panic. Another example, Wang Fei was just the daughter of an ordinary wealthy family. The police had already identified her, so why not just arrest her? And how should he explain the pregnancy notes he found in the keyboard tray?

Lu Jianchuan was not good at lying. He could logically point out all these flaws, questioning them one by one until he got to the deeper truth of the matter.

But he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

…What if it’s true? What if it’s false?

What he cared about was not the serial murder case, nor the marriage alliance, nor even Wang Fei herself. What he cared about was whether Lu Jianchuan had betrayed him.

He took a slow breath, staring at the marks left on Lu Jianchuan’s neck, then looked away after a moment, sitting up in bed. His head was spinning severely, surrounded by a thick sense of defeat, an emotion that was extremely rare for him.

Lu Jianchuan is still laying in bed, reaching out to pull him close, leaning in a bit closer, kissing the bite marks on his back, burying his entire face in it, sniffing deeply at the residual odor of the tentacle’s mucus on his body.

His voice lacked confidence, sounding soft: “Why aren’t you saying anything? Darling, don’t you have anything else you want to ask? Feel free to ask, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Fang Xingzhou broke free from his embrace, silently walking into the bathroom.

Lu Jianchuan paused.

He propped himself up, watching his lover’s retreating figure, running his hand over the fake bruise on his neck, blinking in confusion.

Is this a sign of belief or disbelief?

He had prepared himself mentally to be questioned, but why isn’t Fang Xingzhou saying anything? Did he take his explanations as outright lies?

But that didn’t seem right.

If he didn’t believe him at all, he would most likely have thrown him out from the second floor.

Lu Jianchuan rubbed his hair, feeling lost, quietly getting out of bed, walking to the bathroom, and hearing the sound of running water inside. However, the gas in the house hadn’t been turned on yet, and the person inside was taking a cold shower.

It was midwinter.

Lu Jianchuan felt sorry for him, wanting to open the door and go in, lightly tapping the bathroom door handle—only to find that it was locked from the inside.

Fang Xingzhou never locks the door before.

Lu Jianchuan took a shallow breath, messing up his hair even more, hesitating to barge in, and instead stood in front of the bathroom door for a while, eventually picking up his phone and reaching out to his cleanup team for help.

 

He opened Li Xuan’s chat window: “Li Officer, are you awake? How’s your body feeling?”

After being polite, before the other party could reply, he eagerly got to the point.

“I followed your advice and talked to Xingzhou, but he still is still ignoring me. Did I pick the wrong timing to talk to him?”

A moment later, the nickname changed to “typing…”

Lu Jianchuan patiently waited, waiting for several minutes until he finally received a long string of replies.

Li Xuan was no longer as aloof as when they first met, instead warmly suggesting ideas as if they were ordinary friends: “The impact of something as shocking as the marriage alliance on the other is too great. He’s currently in a crisis of trust, and it’s difficult for him to calm down quickly. You just need to be careful with your words and silently show him care. We’ll take care of the rest for you.”

“Oh, and,” he added another message, “don’t reveal too many details, be careful that you might not be able to round it over.”

Lu Jianchuan read it and immediately relaxed. He smiled and replied, “Okay, thank you!”

He put down his phone, not waiting at the bathroom door anymore, simply putting on a pair of pants and heading to the kitchen to make breakfast.

When Fang Xingzhou finished his shower and came out, Lu Jianchuan was shirtless, wearing an apron, humming a cheerful tune as he skillfully flipped eggs in the pan.

Although the weather was cold today, the sunlight was great, shining through the kitchen window into the house, casting a faint warm light on Lu Jianchuan, making his wheat-colored skin glow as if brushed with honey, sweet and smooth.

For the past ten years, the same scene had appeared countless times in the kitchen in the early morning. Fang Xingzhou always could not resist the temptation to go over and encircle his waist from behind, and then he exchanged a toothpaste-flavored good morning kiss with him. And Lu Jianchuan knew this well. Even in the coldest winter, he still enjoyed showing off his almost perfect body to his lover who had just woken up, like a peacock in its mating season.

Fang Xingzhou quietly leaned against the kitchen door frame, cold drops of water dripping down his hair, his breath tinged with warmth. Taking a cold shower didn’t have much effect, and he could hardly resist the desire to hug. His fingers shook unconsciously, and Fang Xingzhou stared at Lu Jianchuan’s slim and graceful figure, as if possessed, imagining himself using a small knife to carve his name into the perfect skin in front of him, leaving his mark for a lifetime, making it impossible for him to betray. After a long time, he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he had gathered all his expressions, silently averting his gaze, lightly speaking up, “Let’s talk.”

Half an hour later, the two sat face to face at opposite ends of the dining table, with a hearty breakfast prepared by Lu Jianchuan in the middle.

Fang Xingzhou looked pale, his felt cold, his whole body feeling like it was falling apart, his dizziness getting worse, as if he had expended too much energy last night, resulting in symptoms of hypoglycemia and hypotension.

He took a sip of milk.

This action immediately deepened the color of Lu Jianchuan’s pupils.

His gaze fell on Fang Xingzhou’s slender clavicle, marked with teeth prints, his Adam’s apple unable to help rolling gently, his mind filled with the vivid images of his lover’s flushed earlobes, the veins bulging on his hand, his fair body covered in sweat, his hoarse pleas… and the trophy that was the same color as the milk in front of him.

He swallowed them all, using the newly grown stomach belonging to the “queen” to digest and fuse them. Although he was still not proficient in the process, the success rate of genetic integration seemed to be not bad, thanks to enough love as a medium.

Now, he sat here, and the seeds inside his body had entered the final struggle, vaguely determining the final victor—a monster embryo that could be left behind as the only survivor.

Just thinking about it made Lu Jianchuan blush.

“Darling,” he said in a sticky voice, “let’s talk after breakfast, okay? You’ve used up so much energy, you need to replenish.”

Fang Xingzhou: “I’m not hungry.”

Lu Jianchuan: “How could you not be hungry? Did you overexert yourself? I’m sorry, I should have been more restrained last night, but after all, it was our engagement night, I was just too excited, so…”

Fang Xingzhou looked at him in silence, his expression slightly cold.

Lu Jianchuan was frozen by his gaze, his lips trembling for a moment, tossing aside Li Xuan’s advice, and began to explain instinctively, “Do you still not believe me? Do you want to talk about Wang Fei? My engagement with her is fake. If you don’t believe me, we can go back to the Lu family in a few days, and you can ask my parents anything you want.”

“I was with you all night last night, we spent a very pleasant evening together, never separated for a moment, there was no way anything could have happened with Wang Fei. Or… if you’re still worried, why not carve your name on me? Carve it on my chest? Back? Thighs?… That part is also fine, as long as you like it.”

Fang Xingzhou took a gentle breath, pinching his brow, giving himself ten seconds to calm down properly.

Lu Jianchuan: “Xingzhou…”

Fang Xingzhou raised his head again, saying, “You and Wang Fei’s engagement is fake, the dates are fake, and you haven’t had any relationship with her?”

Lu Jianchuan immediately said, “Yes!”

Fang Xingzhou: “Okay.”

Lu Jianchuan’s heart skipped a beat. “You believed me?”

Fang Xingzhou didn’t answer, seemingly indifferent to the matter. He simply said, “Let’s just assume that all of that is fake. I won’t ask you anything else about Wang Fei. We’re adults, and having some irrelevant secrets is normal.”

This start made Lu Jianchuan gradually have a bad premonition. He sat up straight, gripping the juice glass tightly in his hand.

Fang Xingzhou: “I only ask one question.”

Lu Jianchuan nodded. “What is it?”

“The notes you hid in the keyboard tray,” Fang Xingzhou stated calmly, but his eyes were dangerously dark, “who were you planning to have a child with?”

Lu Jianchuan: “…”

For a moment, he almost broke out in a cold sweat.

He moved his lips, almost wanting to spill out the real truth, but he endured it, struggling back and forth, and finally couldn’t help it. He stood up from his chair, walked to Fang Xingzhou, and hugged him.

One stood, the other sat.

The height difference made Fang Xingzhou’s cheek press against his abdomen, and because of nervousness, that part was unconsciously tensed, revealing his perfectly shaped abdominal muscles.

Fang Xingzhou was surrounded by a nice and familiar strange fragrance, he inhaled deeply, closed his eyes and leaned against his lover’s abdomen to listen to the steady heartbeat coming from inside.

Lu Jianchuan seriously said, “I will only have children with you, Xingzhou, every word of that note was written for you.”

Knowing that Lu Jianchuan was saying nothing more than fake words of love at this time, he still couldn’t resist, and an indescribable and marvelous emotion arose in his heart ……

“After a while …… you will be able to hear another heartbeat from here,” Lu See Chuan’s voice is getting lighter and lighter, he hooked up the corner of his mouth, the tone became ethereal: “Our child will be born from here. ”

Fang Xingzhou’s index finger that was placed on the edge of the table curled up and was held by Lu Jianchuan in a ten-finger interlocking position.

He raised his head and met Lu Jianchuan’s glass bead-like clear and beautiful eyes, and saw his own reflection in them, and for some reason his heart skipped a beat, and the knot in his throat moved lightly.

This tiny expression was captured by Lu Jianchuan, he bent down, and got Fang Xingzhou easily into his arms, lowered his head and kissed his eyebrows, and then along the handsome bridge of the nose all the way down to the cold bloodless lips, prying open the teeth, wantonly taste the residual milk sweetness inside, and his rapid breath sprayed on the tip of his nose.

Fang Xingzhou’s body gradually softened, also his heart hidden behind his ribs.

For some reason, he felt that Lu Jianchuan was not lying at this moment.

Even though what he said was the most unlikely thing in the world, even absurd to the point of being a joke—

He still couldn’t help but want to believe… Perhaps he had long turned into a mentally unstable lunatic.

Lu Jianchuan hugged him and sat back in the chair, their kiss growing more and more intense, as if trying to make up for all the missing parts of the past, kissing until Fang Xingzhou’s jaw began to numb, his tongue stiff with saliva that he couldn’t hold back, before reluctantly pulling away and licking his lips.

The two were very close, their breaths still intertwined. Fang Xingzhou looked at Lu Jianchuan’s face, damp with sweat, and laughed at himself, reaching out to grab the end of his hair at the back of his head.

“Xingzhou…” Lu Jianchuan called his name softly, as if awaiting a life-or-death judgment, “believe me.”

After a long while.

Fang Xingzhou took a deep breath.

He calmed down slowly, speaking in a soft tone, “In a few days, come with me to the hospital.”

Lu Jianchuan’s eyes lit up instantly.

“For a prenatal check-up?” he asked eagerly.

“No,” Fang Xingzhou half-closed his eyes, his gaze falling on Lu Jianchuan’s slim, entirely masculine waist, “for a psychological evaluation.”

 

Author’s & translator’s Note:

Loud laughter: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH