The news was on TV.
The country’s economic situation had been deteriorating lately, and this had been accompanied by an increasingly depressing social atmosphere and an increasingly impatient population.
The growth rate of mu*rder cases was increasing.
The rate of detection was very low.
“Police have now launched a more detailed investigation into the butcher store serial ki*llings.”
“Just a few days ago, a serial m*urder case was solved, in which multiple human bones were found in a remote butcher store, while one victim was rescued and two main culprits were successfully arrested.”
“In addition, recently there have been some religious elements in the streets that carry out excessive preaching. Please pay attention to your safety in public; try not to travel at night.”
The host of the news program had a serious expression.
The man with a bandaged face was sitting on the sofa, watching the news broadcast on the TV. His eyes swept over the two main culprits, who were heavily burned and carried on stretchers, his thoughts unknown.
That day, he felt an unprecedentedly powerful malice when he was caught in the fire.
If it wasn’t for that overpowering malice, perhaps he wouldn’t have been able to detect the movement inside the butcher store in advance and escape from the sea of fire.
For some reason, he instantly connected that malice with the voice that had appeared in his ears.
Was it from the god of doom?
That false god.
The false god of doom wanted to ki*ll him and take his lover.
“……”
“It’s almost time for the appointment; let’s go.”
Just as Lu Yuan was in inexplicable contemplation, behind him, his simply dressed young boss looked at the time and was ready to go out.
He had recently made an appointment with a well-reputed psychiatrist and planned to take the object of discipline to have a look.
Although he knew that the object of discipline’s current mental problems were related to the other part of his soul, the god of doom, prescribing some medication would at least ease the physical pain.
It was better than nothing.
“Okay.”
Lu Yuan got up, obediently turned off the TV, and followed the young boss out of the hotel room.
He didn’t notice that just before he turned off the TV, a news program was broadcasting a news story.
It was reported that the H city reservoir had been forcibly entered by many followers of the god of doom, and under the pretense of granting the people the reward of god, they had sprinkled water of a strange scarlet color into the reservoir.
“But please rest assured, the reservoir was abandoned as early as the year before last and will not affect the residents’ daily water use.”
On television, the brightly dressed female host finished, revealing a gentle smile.
But there was a hidden flash of red in her curved eyes.
Walking out of the hotel, a scheduled cab was already parked at the entrance.
Jiu Shu sat in the backseat with Lu Yuan and leaned on Lu Yuan’s shoulder with his eyes closed once he got in.
And Lu Yuan was looking at his boss’s quiet and beautiful face in a daze.
He had rarely thought of the god of doom lately.
At one time, he was still struggling to not go against god’s will, repeating over and over again in his mind that he hadn’t moved on and was only doing his duty as an employee, wanting to fulfill his boss’s requirements.
But after actually reading his boss’s words in a magazine and realizing that there was a real possibility that his boss would spend the rest of his life with him, he realized that those religious bonds were so fragile and vulnerable.
So fragile that he didn’t even hesitate for a second before forgetting all those hesitations and guilt from the past; he just wanted to embrace Jiu Shu and never let go.
To Lu Yuan, Jiu Shu was his only salvation.
It wasn’t until that moment that he realized that all of his previous entanglements were just out of an extreme sense of humility in his heart.
He was afraid of his thoughts being found out and of being abandoned by his boss.
He only dared to use some ridiculous excuses to cover up those unpleasant fantasies in his heart.
Cover up those humble desires of his.
He never thought that this young boss, who was a far cry from him, would really like him.
In fact, up until now, he had suffered from a sense of loss.
He wondered if everything in front of him would be just a dream.
When he woke up from the dream, he would be back in the once dilapidated and lonely house, repeating the same routine he once had day in and day out, until more and more hallucinations drove him crazy and he couldn’t tell the difference between humans and livestock completely.
After all, he recently confused humans with livestock.
The only exception was the young boss at his side, with his white fluffy rabbit ears, the white feathers behind him, and his beautiful, smiling face.
He could never be mistaken.
“Thinking again?”
A hand suddenly caressed Lu Yuan’s cheek, delicate fingertips rubbing against his slightly rough bandages, with laughter in his voice.
Then there was a soft body leaning into him and a warm voice over the side of his ear.
“Sometimes I wish I could see what goes on in your head. What do I really look like to you?”
“With an animal head too?”
“……”
Lu Yuan lowered his head, held the palm of his boss’s hand that was caressing his face, and didn’t speak.
Instead, he answered softly in his mind that he was an angel.
He was the angel that had come to save him.
His mental condition had been explained to Jiu Shu in the past two days of spending time together.
He didn’t hide it.
He knew there shouldn’t be secrets after becoming his lover, so he told the truth about all the humans he had seen as livestock heads.
He was nervous at the time.
He was afraid that he would be treated as a monster by Jiu Shu.
But he didn’t want to keep hiding it from Jiu Shu.
His own mental illness had reached a very serious level, so serious that even he couldn’t know exactly when he would go insane.
If he didn’t tell his lover, he was afraid that one day his unsuspecting lover would be hurt by him.
And after listening to these words, Jiu Shu didn’t act like the best-case scenario that Lu Yuan had expected; he thought that even though he still liked this body, he would no longer be affectionate and wouldn’t act in any intimate manner that went beyond a lover’s relationship.
Instead, as usual, he kissed him lightly on the lips before cradling his head in his arms and softly saying: It must have been painful.
His voice also grew softer: It’s okay, I’ll be with you to get better, and we have a long, long future to spend together.
“… Jiu Shu.”
“Hmm?” The young boss raised his eyes and looked at Lu Yuan, who suddenly called his name, while Lu Yuan just paused and kissed his cheek.
A very light but cherished kiss.
He just suddenly wanted to kiss Jiu Shu.
Kiss his lover.
Kiss the Jiu Shu he never thought could be his lover.
Even if they couldn’t be together for the rest of their lives, just the memories of the last few days would be enough.
Compared to all the suffering he had endured in the first half of his life, the sweetness of these few days had been the best thing he could imagine.
“Don’t get carried away; we still have a long time to spend together.”
The young boss’s voice rang in his ear, soft but sweet enough to reach one’s heart.
“Uh-huh.” Lu Yuan lowered his eyes, hiding the love in his eyes that was so soft that it was about to overflow.
Prick la–
The cab suddenly skidded a bit, and the violent shaking caused the young boss’s body to tilt a bit.
However, he was held when he was about to leave Lu Yuan’s embrace, leaning more intimately into his arms.
Lu Yuan carefully tightened his arm around Jiu Shu’s waist to make sure he wouldn’t be hurt in the slightest.
“…”
The car quickly resumed running smoothly, but the atmosphere became inexplicably silent.
Seeing this, the cab driver apologized, “Sorry customer, the road is a bit wet today.”
“It’s fine; keep driving.”
Jiu Shu didn’t care about this little episode.
He looked at the time and realized that there was still a distance from the agreed-upon time, so he wasn’t in a big hurry.
He stayed in the arms of the object of discipline and looked out the car window at the street scene speeding by.
Today’s H City was filled with fog.
In the light fog, the entire concrete-poured city was gathered in a hazy veil, and only the pedestrians with hurried feet could be seen walking by the side of the road.
He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he felt that the pedestrians on the side of the road would inadvertently look at this car.
In the misty haze, everyone’s eyes were focused on one spot.
“Customer, it’s here.”
Soon, the cab stopped.
“Lu Yuan, let’s go.”
The young boss got out of the car first, and Lu Yuan followed.
But for some reason, his footsteps suddenly stopped, and his gaze paused on the cab driver for a long time.
“Uh, customer, is there something on my face?”
The driver who was watched revealed an awkward smile.
“……”
Lu Yuan’s dark eyes stared at him for a long time before he moved away and followed his waiting lover ahead of him.
And behind him, the driver still had a smile on his face, but there was a vague flash of blo*od in those eyes.
“This should be it.”
Jiu Shu glanced at the address on the business card and walked into the counseling office.
In this country where the rich were paper-drunk, the best psychologists were not in hospitals but in private clinics like this one, which could be said to be entirely for the rich.
As soon as he entered the room, Jiu Shu saw that there were already quite a few patients waiting for appointments in this counseling office, and it looked like they had been waiting for a long time.
But as a rich tycoon, Jiu Shu was naturally allowed to jump the queue.
He was quickly invited into the doctor’s consultation room.
“Is the patient… this one?”
In the room, the psychiatrist sitting behind the desk looked at the registration form in his hands, a gentle smile hanging on his face, he was wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
He was referring to Lu Yuan, who was standing on the side of Jiu Shu.
As a psychiatrist who had seen countless patients, his mental quality was obviously very good; even when he saw a fierce-looking bandaged man, he didn’t have the slightest intention of being afraid; instead, he revealed a professional speculative gaze.
He gave Lu Yuan a form to fill out carefully.
Lu Yuan seemed to look at the psychiatrist for a few moments before he silently finished writing the form.
During the time of writing the form, Jiu Shu had been sitting beside Lu Yuan, holding his palm soothingly so that he wouldn’t be nervous.
The psychiatrist, on the other hand, maintained the gentle smile on his face, but his gaze hovered over Jiu Shu, if at all, seemingly interested in the beautiful-looking young tycoon.
After all, not everyone could easily accept the pairing of a rich young man with a tall man whose appearance could even be called vicious.
And in the face of the psychiatrist’s gaze, Jiu Shu merely raised his eyes and politely arched an eyebrow with a faint smile.
Seeing this, the psychiatrist paused, and his fingers holding the pen seemed to tighten slightly for a moment before he withdrew his gaze.
Lu Yuan quickly finished filling out the form.
“I can see that it’s a typical symptom of schizophrenia.”
After getting the form, the psychiatrist carefully analyzed Lu Yuan’s condition before looking at Jiu Shu.
“The next treatment may require a more private space, requiring me to talk to the patient alone for a while.”
“Please don’t worry; I’ll do my best to treat the patient.”
The psychiatrist smiled at Jiu Shu and promised.
Jiu Shu sniffed and glanced at the object of discipline beside him, making sure that he didn’t appear to be overly emotional before saying, “I’ll wait for you outside the door.”
“Okay.” Lu Yuan meekly replied.
Jiu Shu then walked out of the room.
After the door closed, only the psychiatrist and Lu Yuan were left in the soundproofed room.
“What is the reason for the bandage on your face?”
The psychiatrist inquired, but Lu Yuan didn’t answer, only staring at him with pitch-black eyes.
He was cold and indifferent.
There was no longer the warmth that was there when he faced Jiu Shu just now.
“Don’t want to answer?”
“Then I’ll ask in a different way, well, is there any thought of wanting to commit su*icide?”
“After all, it’s hard to have a monster’s face, isn’t it?”
The psychiatrist smiled, his eyes curving under his gold-rimmed glasses to hide the growing scarlet color in his eyes.
At this moment, outside the door,.
Jiu Shu was quietly waiting for the treatment to end, his gaze seeming to hold some thought.
It was only after a long time that he raised his head and realized that there was an unfamiliar male beside him.
He was a well-dressed young man with dark hair and eyes who seemed to have been peeking at Jiu Shu.
After meeting Jiu Shu’s gaze, the sight simply stopped being hidden, and a decent smile appeared.
“Hello, first-time meeting.”
Jiu Shu’s calm gaze moved away from him to the others in the waiting area.
There were both men and women.
But there was always the feeling that they were all looking over at him.
“I just saw you go in with that bandaged guy; um, are you guys in that kind of relationship?”
The young man was somewhat self-conscious.
He didn’t seem to realize that this was only his first meeting with Jiu Shu, discussing his private life without any sense of proportion.
“I feel that you guys are very incompatible. Ah, you’re so young, you look rich, and that man just now isn’t a good person at first glance. It… ah, sorry, is it too much to say? Sorry, I just have a good feeling about you, so I don’t want you to be cheated.”
“After all, recently there have been a lot of young, rich second generations that have been kid*napped and ki*lled in the news, so I’m a little over the top, sorry.”
The young man couldn’t help but look frustrated as he looked at Jiu Shu’s cold expression, seemingly genuinely chagrined at his rudeness.
“I really just…”
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Jiu Shu: “I don’t need others to judge my affairs with my beloved.”
“As long as I love him, that’s enough, as well as, may I ask you to step away from me? I would like to take a short nap.”
Jiu Shu’s beautiful peach blossom-like eyes curved up slightly, but the smile he habitually showed was incredibly detached.
It was very different from the intimacy when facing Lu Yuan.
“… Okay.”
Looking at such a Jiu Shu, the young man seemed a little stunned, and the fingers placed at his side were clenched.
It was only after a long time that he got up and left the place, sitting in another place that was a bit farther away from Jiu Shu but where he could still see him.
And after he left, Jiu Shu didn’t continue to pay attention to the younger man, nor did he take a nap, it was obviously just an excuse to kick him away.
He looked down at the news on his cell phone.
It showed that someone else seemed to have escaped from the asylum recently.
Last time, it seemed to be the male protagonist; who could it be this time?
Thinking for a moment, Jiu Shu looked again at the door to the treatment room, which was not far away.
It’d been a while; he wondered how the treatment was going.
Bang-!!!
Inside the treatment room, the sound of bones hitting the corner of the table hard came.
It seemed that someone stifled a grunt, forcibly enduring the pain in his torso, then grabbed the pen on the table, about to viciously stab the man at his side.
But in the next moment, his wrist was easily snapped.
Crack–
“D*amn it!”
At this moment, the psychiatrist wearing gold-rimmed glasses with his well-kept hairstyle draped over his face seemed hideous and gloomy, covering his twisted wrist. He seemed to be trembling slightly in pain.
This was why he hated humans the most—their tainted emotions, their fragile bodies, and those nerves that actually felt pain.
“I thought you prided yourself on your piety! What? You don’t believe in gods when you actually see them, and instead you attack your god!”
“Simply a treacherous monster.”
Bang! A large, pale hand grabbed the psychiatrist’s head and slammed it hard into the floor, knocking him unconscious and causing those irritating words to completely disappear from earshot.
Then the man with the bandages wrapped around his face looked down at the psychiatrist lying on the floor. He was silent for a moment, then made a half-hearted sound.
“No.”
That wasn’t the god of doom.
Anyone who tried to take away Jiu Shu wasn’t god.
Knock-knock.
“Are you okay? Lu Yuan? I think I heard a commotion.”
Outside the door came Jiu Shu’s voice.
Lu Yuan retracted his gaze from the psychiatrist and looked at the room that was in shambles, hesitating for a moment before walking to the door, opening it, and walking out.
Before Jiu Shu could see what was in the room, he closed the door.
It hid the chaotic fight inside the door and the sticky blo*od that continued to flow, staining the doctor’s white coat.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s just… something’s wrong with the doctor.”
“Let’s come back another time.”
Lu Yuan’s speech was much more fluent now, and Jiu Shu heard the meaning of his words and glanced thoughtfully at the door to the room he was blocking.
Just as he was about to say something, a hurriedly-footed nurse came up behind him.
The nurse compensated with a smile, “I’m sorry, the doctor isn’t be feeling well, so he ended the consultation early. Please don’t worry; this consultation won’t be counted as a charge, and I’ll also trouble you to come back next time.”
Lu Yuan set his eyes on the young woman, especially her goat head, whose eyes were covered with bizarre blood and flesh.
Parasite-like threads of slender flesh wriggled inside the goat’s eyeball.
“I’m really very sorry!”
Saying that, the goat nurse hooked up the corner of her mouth, revealing the writhing blood and flesh, and looked at Jiu Shu with an imploring gaze.
She seemed to be hoping that Jiu Shu would look at her because of her beauty.
Jiu Shu didn’t pay attention to the nurse; he just looked at Lu Yuan and said, “Let’s go then; we’ll just come back next time.”
Lu Yuan hummed and naturally held hands with Jiu Shu, interlocking their fingers.
Leaving behind the nurse, who could barely control her smiling expression.
He must k*ill Lu Yuan!
He had to k*ill him!
Lu Yuan walked together with Jiu Shu, and as he passed by the waiting area, his gaze swept over those waiting.
Every single one of them raised their heads to meet Lu Yuan’s gaze, with smiles on their faces, but their eyes were scarlet.
It wasn’t until the backs of Lu Yuan and Jiu Shu disappeared for a long time that the smiles on their faces dispersed, leaving only cold, expressionless faces.
On the streets of H city, Li Qi carefully hid in the shadows of the alley; she didn’t dare go to a crowded place for fear that she would encounter the doctors who had captured her.
She had managed to escape with great difficulty this time, and although she had escaped with the help of Li Sheng, she had purposely parted ways with Li Sheng after she came out and avoided him.
Because he was untrustworthy now.
Ever since the last time he was arrested after being discharged from the hospital, Li Sheng had become very out of sorts.
Although he appeared to be fine on the outside, Li Qi would occasionally hear him muttering words like “I’ll do it next time, I’ll do it next time” or something like that.
Such words made it obvious to Li Qi that Li Sheng had been compelled by the god of doom and had now completely lost his mind.
Even if she endeavored to tell him the truth—the truth hidden in those memories—Li Sheng wouldn’t believe it in the slightest.
He only stubbornly wanted to complete the task given by God so that he could regain the favor of God instead of God’s coldly calling him “waste.”.
For Li Sheng, who was a devout believer in the god of doom, the favor of the god of doom was everything.
Even if the god of doom was already delirious and his speech was upside down, that was still the god he believed in.
For Li Qi, such a Li Sheng was undoubtedly completely insane.
The butcher was absolutely unk*illable.
No one knew the truth better than Li Qi.
In her opinion, the reason why the god of doom had loathed Butcher so much in her previous life, trying to ki*ll him in every way possible, but in the end, He could only drive him out of the Capital of Flesh and Bl*ood because Butcher was the root of the cure for the god of doom.
Only if the butcher lived could he have any hope of being cured.
Compared to the crazy god of doom, the butcher was like a part of the god of doom that had split off, symbolizing his last sanity.
Only if sanity existed all the time would the god of doom not fall into madness forever.
Therefore, the butcher absolutely couldn’t die!
Li Qi judged according to her memories of her previous life that it was now nearing the point in time where the butcher would commit sui*cide, and even without Li Sheng’s assassination attempt, he wouldn’t be able to live much longer.
This wouldn’t work; she had to save the butcher and let him live!
This was the main reason why Li Qi had escaped from the mental hospital.
Of course, the other part of the reason was also that the atmosphere in the mental hospital had been getting stranger and stranger lately.
She didn’t know why, but she felt that the doctors and nurses’ eyes had turned red, and even their words and actions had become synchronized.
There was an eerie atmosphere everywhere.
It made her shiver.
This made Li Qi more and more uneasy; she had to leave the mental hospital and find the butcher as soon as possible.
Luckily, she learned where Butcher had gone from Li Sheng.
He was in this city, accompanying a beautiful young lover.
Although this different status quo from what she remembered from her previous life confused Li Qi a bit, the current priority was to find the butcher as soon as possible.
“Hey, do you know? Do you know where Lu Yuan is?” The only thing Li Qi knew about the butcher was that his name was Lu Yuan.
In the restaurant, the bartender smiled at the sudden intrusion of Li Qi and, after a pause, asked, “What are you looking for him for?”
“I need to find him quickly! Or the world will end!”
Li Qi’s insane words clearly amused the bartender.
His straightened spine arched in laughter.
“What? That one called Lu Yuan can save the world?”
“You’re joking, ma’am.”
“I’m not joking! I’m telling the truth! The god of doom is about to destroy the world! Don’t you know that?”
“I didn’t.”
“I can tell you if you don’t know, but you have to tell me where Lu Yuan is; if I don’t find him, it will be too late!”
“The god of doom will ki*ll the butcher, and then the world will be completely hopeless!”
“Why will it be hopeless? Is Lu Yuan that important?”
“Of course it’s important! He’s the only hope!”
“The only!”
Li Qi repeated this over and over again.
But as she said it, something suddenly felt wrong, and she realized that she shouldn’t have asked just anyone for the butcher’s address.
She must have fallen ill again.
Li Qi looked up and was just about to explain that she was having an attack, so that the nice man who had been talking to her for a while wouldn’t mind.
The next moment, she saw that the bartender in front of her had a slightly strange expression.
His smiling face appeared formulaic, but the corners of his mouth pulled wider and wider until he was grinning up to his ears.
It was ghastly.
“Is that so? Lu Yuan is more important than the god of doom.” The bartender’s tone was as mild as it had been a moment ago.
“…god of doom, the god of doom is going to k*ill, k*ill all of humanity, so, so…”
Li Qi stiffened and stammered in reply.
Her eyes, however, subconsciously looked to the side and found that the several people in the bar beside her who had just been drinking and eating food on their own all turned their heads and looked at her with the same formulaic smile.
Their gazes were cold.
“Really, then once all the humans are ki*lled, Lu Yuan will no longer be the only hope; after all, this hope serves no purpose whatsoever.”
The bartender spoke, his dangling smile growing more eerie.
The fingers wiping the glass tightened as well, as if suppressing anger.
“I don’t, I don’t know—I don’t know! Ahhhhhh!”
Li Qi’s fear was finally suppressed to the breaking point; she crumpled and covered her head as she ran away from the group of people with wide smiles beside her.
Escaping the area before she was completely surrounded by them, she ran towards the outside of the restaurant.
So scary, so scary, oooh…
Li Qi ran forward with her head covered by her hands, while the people in bar, with smiling faces, followed nonchalantly behind her.
It seemed like they wanted to continue to pursue her and ask her whether or not the god of doom was important compared to Lu Yuan.
Bang…
Li Qi nearly knocked over someone, and with a hasty look, she saw that in front of her was an unusually beautiful-looking young male, with the butcher she had been searching for for a long time following behind him.
At that instant, it was as if Li Qi had seen a savior, and she loudly begged for help: ”Save me, save me, the god of doom! The god of doom is going to k*ill us all! K*ill you and Lu Yuan behind you!”
Saying that, Li Qi also pointed behind her at the customers who were about to catch up.
“…”
Jiu Shu swept his gaze from Li Qi’s face and raised his eyes to the people behind her.
Their smiling faces all seemed to stiffen a bit.
Thank you for the chapter!