ADTCP Ch9

“…?”

Zhu Wensheng was puzzled.

What did he mean by “not appropriate”? They hadn’t even gotten to that kind of relationship yet?

He glanced at a few guys not far away who were obviously searching for Tao Zhen in the crowd. Frowning slightly, he ignored the confusing parts of Tao Zhen’s words, and once again reached out to pull him toward the restroom.

“Why not? I have something to tell you. It’s more convenient in there—”

Tao Zhen’s face flushed red, completely flustered. He hurriedly waved his hands and stumbled back a step.

“It just won’t work! Wh-what can’t be said out here? I don’t want to go to the bathroom right now…”

Zhu Wensheng let out a light sigh.

He lowered his head. The blond boy in front of him looked like a cat with its tail stepped on, bristling in a show of false bravado, yet refusing to press into someone’s palm.

Dressed in a flashy designer shirt covered in logos, he looked every inch a cocky young master, but in truth he was panicking like someone who had never even held a man’s hand before. It was enough to make one anxious, but also left one feeling softhearted and helpless.

Zhu Wensheng dropped his gaze, his cold expression melting slightly.
“Alright. Since you don’t want to go to the restroom, then let’s talk here.”

“…” Tao Zhen’s eyes widened as if struck by some shocking realization.

“R-right here?”

Not going to the restroom—didn’t that mean taking off pants here instead?

“Mhm.”

“But this place has cameras everywhere! How can we do something like that under surveillance?!”

Tao Zhen was horrified. Regretfully gritting his teeth, he grabbed Zhu Wensheng’s hand instead and dragged him toward the restroom in a hurry.
“Do you know? My parents always told me—outside, you have to protect yourself, don’t do anything foolish. But… making foolish mistakes, that’s something everyone falls into—it’s the most normal thing.”

“So, we have to do our best to protect the people around us. They’re already pitiful enough—they can’t afford to be hurt again…”

Zhu Wensheng’s pupils trembled slightly. With his tall frame and long legs, he normally covered three steps in the time others took two. But following behind Tao Zhen now, his strides were unexpectedly heavy.

Rounding the flower wall of the banquet hall, the two stopped by the screen outside the restroom.

Tao Zhen was out of breath from running, his fair face flushed pink, doglike watery eyes glittering with starlight. Embarrassed, he patted his cheeks lightly and whispered:
“Okay, we’re at the restroom now… there’s no one around… so, we can start, uh…”

But Zhu Wensheng suddenly interrupted him:
“Wait.”

“I… I need to use the bathroom first.” He paused, and the voice that had been cold and distant since their first meeting suddenly carried a trace of gentleness.
“Give me a few minutes to think, alright?”

Tao Zhen blinked, a little confused, but still nodded obediently.

He watched as Zhu Wensheng strode into a stall. It took him several seconds to realize.

Huh?

Wait—wasn’t Zhu Wensheng about to… compare sizes with him?

…Then why did he feel oddly disappointed!

Tao Zhen circled around the screen twice, then decided to hide himself in the gap between walls, planning to jump out and scare Zhu Wensheng when he came out.

He lowered his gaze to the tips of his shiny shoes, spacing out as he imagined Zhu Wensheng’s reaction. Just as he was about to laugh at his own thoughts, the light through the crack before him suddenly dimmed.

Startled, he looked up—only to see several familiar figures storming angrily out of the banquet hall. They skidded to a stop right at the corner by the restroom.

At the front was none other than Wu Bin.

No one knew exactly what had happened. He clutched at the off-season designer shirt on his chest, eyes bulging and red, breath heaving as he raged, “F***! What the hell is wrong with those people’s eyes?”

“I should’ve rushed over and gouged their eyeballs out—rip every one of those filthy mouths to shreds!”

Tao Zhen froze, hesitated a few seconds, then held back the urge to say hello. He kept silent, standing in the narrow space behind the screen.

“Exactly! F***! As if they’re all squeaky clean, who do they think they are?” someone chimed in, furious. “I don’t get it. Who did we even cross? Who leaked all this stuff!?”

“Could it be Tao Zhen? Didn’t he ask Bin-Ge the other day if he needed help—with that fake nice act?”

“Right! The thief crying ‘stop thief.’ I’ll bet it was him… He found out about our thing and leaked it on purpose to get back at us!”

“Has to be… yeah, it was Tao Zhen!”

Hearing his own name out of the blue, Tao Zhen’s heart gave a hard thump.

He screwed his brows tight, instinctively wanting to rush out and confront them. He dug his nails into his palm to force back his temper and pinned himself in place.

Sure enough, the next second Wu Bin cut off their noisy speculation. “Impossible.”

“That idiot Tao Zhen didn’t even realize we were egging him on to ‘sponsor’ Zhu Wensheng. We ditched him at the bar and he still paid our tab with a smile… You think he could pull off a stunt like this?”

Tao Zhen went blank.

His fingers loosened suddenly, revealing deep crimson half-moon marks in his palm.

“…You can’t say that,” someone else objected. “If he’s truly useless, how did he manage to keep that Zhu Wensheng as a sugar baby? And everyone saw with their own eyes how the manager at Yinyou City personally waited on him—fifty percent off, a VIP card! Clearly his background isn’t ordinary. It’s not impossible he’s playing us on purpose.”

“Liuzi’s right! Bin-Ge, you were the one who just had to mess with Tao Zhen—greedy for the tab he covered, and now he’s been waiting to get us back!”

“Enough!” Wu Bin’s face went iron-blue, uglier by the second. Clearly, he thought they had a point. “F***. He actually dared to scam me!”

“Acting like he knows nothing about bars, playing all warm and generous… F***! Why? And that Zhu Wensheng is no saint either—puts on a high-and-mighty act, but lets that little slut Tao Zhen hook him right in. For all we know, he’s just some toy worn out by rich women—”

“Bang!”

A thunderous crash chopped off Wu Bin’s venom mid-sentence. Everyone jumped and looked toward the source.

Tao Zhen had kicked the screen wide open. The smile that usually hung on his face was gone; expression flat and cold, he strode up to Wu Bin and grabbed him by the collar. “What did you say?”

“Say it again to my face.”

“…”

Faces blanched and flushed around the circle; eyes slid away.

Only Wu Bin’s glare grew hotter. He clenched Tao Zhen’s wrist and ground out, “Fine. I’ll say it to your face. Think you’re so proud of yourself? Don’t act like you’re some big deal. It’s just a bit of filthy money, what are you preening for? You’re nothing but a country bumpkin!”

“…”

Tao Zhen’s first instinct was to throw two punches into Wu Bin’s face.

But he held it back, chest heaving, breath rough. After a few seconds he tugged a smile onto his lips. “Oh, yeah? Still better than you. Even if I’m a bumpkin, at least I’ve got money. What about you?”

“So what exactly got exposed that’s got you so mad and humiliated?”

“You—!”

Wu Bin’s eyes bulged. That comeback seemed to ignite his blood. He raised his right fist high, aiming straight for Tao Zhen’s eye.

Tao Zhen reflexively turned his face, letting go of Wu Bin’s collar, only to have his wrist yanked. He stumbled forward, heading right into the punch.

No time to think, his eyes clamped shut.

A heartbeat later, a sickening thud cracked the air.

Dazed, Tao Zhen opened his perfectly intact eyes. A black-clad figure stood in front of him, one hand clamped around Wu Bin’s incoming fist.

Then came a cold snort, and a swift, brutal twist of Wu Bin’s elbow.

“Aaaahhh!!!”

“Call the police! I’m calling the police! This is… intentional injury…!!”

Sweat poured off Wu Bin as he howled, cradling his arm at an unnatural angle, still spewing curses: “You… you f***ing…”

It took Tao Zhen a couple of seconds to process what had happened.

His lips moved. He hurried to cradle the hand Zhu Wensheng had used to block the punch, fretting, “Are you okay?! Is the bone okay? Does it, does it hurt?”

Zhu Wensheng lowered his gaze.

The blond boy’s eye corners and nose tip were still flushed; his lashes were damp, whether from anger or fright, who knew.

He was the one who’d almost been punched in the eye, yet he was worried about the one who’d done the hitting.

“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt,” Zhu Wensheng said, voice low. “What about you?”

Only then did Tao Zhen look up and sweep his eyes over the awkward, wary faces around them, finally settling on the wailing Wu Bin.

“Tao Zhen, you think you’re… so much better than me?” Wu Bin snarled, eyes fixed on the current-season logo-splashed shirt Tao Zhen wore, jealousy and rage drowning his sense. “You’re just… a leech living off your parents… They regret having a useless loser like you, you f***ing—mmph!!”

Frost edged Zhu Wensheng’s brows and eyes. A quick low sweep took Wu Bin down hard; the tip of his shoe pinned that foul mouth to the floor.

A professional fighter shouldn’t hit people outside the cage, he knew that. But he was already holding back.

Zhu Wensheng let his icy gaze pass over the crowd, then took Tao Zhen’s hand. “Come with me.”

They slipped past the trembling flower wall, crossed the banquet hall, and, under a sea of bewildered stares, walked into the cool, watery moonlight.

Yesterday’s crape myrtle blossoms had fallen and ground to dust; today’s drifted down onto the blond boy’s trembling shoulders.

After sending Zhao Zhao a message one-handed, Zhu Wensheng pocketed his phone and gently brushed the fallen petals from Tao Zhen.

The boy kept his head down, a pale nape exposed; the vertebrae along his back traced by the fit of his shirt. He looked like a small animal, wilted by rain.

Crying again.

Poor thing.

“Don’t cry anymore, alright?”

Zhu Wensheng pulled a tissue from his pocket and handed it over. Tao Zhen reluctantly took it, but didn’t even have the strength to wipe his face.

His little nose twitched now and then, his fair flushed face damp, large teardrops sliding down from lashes clumped together, falling to the ground with soft plops. He tried hard to pull himself together, even to smile, but his lips still trembled and pouted.

The night after the rain was chilly, the cold wind ceaseless.

Suddenly, Zhu Wensheng let go of Tao Zhen’s hand.

Holding back his sobs, Tao Zhen opened his misty eyes, instinctively wanting to grab him again.

But he saw Zhu Wensheng step back, cross his hands at the hem of his clothes, and tug upward—pulling off the black hoodie he wore and draping it over Tao Zhen’s shoulders.

Warmth spread suddenly across his back and shoulders.

Tao Zhen’s tears stopped at once. He raised his head in a daze.

With the outer layer removed, the cold, handsome boy before him was revealed to be wearing inside a flamboyant shirt covered all over in Fendi logos.