If time could be turned back three years, and someone had gone to Police Officer Mo and made a prediction, saying, “Hehehe, Officer Mo, let me tell you a little secret. Three years from now, you’ll pay to sleep with your former best friend!” there was no doubt that Officer Mo would have knocked every tooth out of that person’s mouth and smashed their face to pieces.
But now, it seemed he truly had no other choice.
For the first time in his life, Officer Mo had visited a brothel.
And he had actually selected the services of his former closest friend, who had later become his sworn enemy.
In the end, Mo Xi’s finger still came down on the bamboo slip beside the words idle conversation. His entire face had turned ashen as he made his selection. Those eyes and brows that embodied strict discipline and propriety were filled with suppressed darkness.
Mo Xi had made his choice.
Gu Mang held out a hand to him.
“What are you doing?”
“Pay me.”
“…You!” Mo Xi was so furious that his eyes reddened, yet he was too choked with rage to form a complete sentence. “I—!”
Gu Mang said nothing. He simply kept his hand out, silently waiting for the money. These days, he spoke very little. If he could avoid talking, he did.
But in Officer Mo’s memories, Gu Mang had been talkative. He was always grinning broadly, his bright black eyes glistening with life, a little canine tooth peeking out when he smiled.
Mo Xi gave him the most expensive gold shell coin in the Chonghua Kingdom.
Gu Mang did not even thank him. He stood, walked over to the shelf, and took down a small jar. Carefully, he placed the shell coin inside, then set the jar back up on a high shelf.
Mo Xi watched him coldly, his heart a tangled mess of emotions—anger, hatred, resentment, bitterness, everything imaginable. Staring at Gu Mang’s back, he suddenly asked in a frigid voice, “How much money have you saved in that jar?”
How many people had been allowed to curse you, humiliate you, and trample all over you?
…You…
How many people had you slept with?
Gu Mang still did not answer. After putting the jar away, he returned to his seat in front of Mo Xi. Under the dim, gloomy lamplight, his face was not entirely clear.
Mo Xi could not tell whether there were subtle emotions on Gu Mang’s face that he had failed to notice.
Gu Mang was far too quiet. So quiet that it seemed almost abnormal.
Had two years of humiliation finally worn away even the last remnants of his pride?
But Mo Xi had not yet demanded repayment for his debts. He had not even heard Gu Mang admit his mistakes…
How could Gu Mang simply strip away his flesh and blood like this, leaving Mo Xi with nothing but an empty shell?
“You gave me a gold shell coin.”
“…Keep the change.”
Gu Mang answered honestly, “I can’t make change for it.”
As he spoke, he opened the bamboo slip again and actually handed it to Mo Xi once more.
“So choose a few more things. You can pick anything on here.”
Mo Xi: “…………………”
He stared at Gu Mang’s face. There was not the slightest trace of pain from being humiliated. Gu Mang simply sat there quietly and peacefully, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, inviting Mo Xi to choose a few more services.
Mo Xi turned his head away, his teeth nearly ground to powder.
How strange. Shouldn’t he have expected this already? In the real world, Gu Mang had been willing to associate with the most disgusting people in society just to enjoy a comfortable life. In this fictional world, what was so surprising about him selling his body to stay alive?
“I don’t want to choose.” Mo Xi grew increasingly agitated. The anger lodged in his chest seemed on the verge of bursting free.
He could no longer stand it. He abruptly rose to his feet, his expression as cold as frost.
“I’m leaving.”
Gu Mang seemed never to have encountered a situation like this before. At last, a trace of helpless bewilderment appeared in his eyes. He wanted to say something, but he did not know what to say.
Mo Xi had already turned to leave when Gu Mang caught hold of his sleeve.
Mo Xi was truly at his breaking point now. Dangerous sparks danced through his blazing fury, threatening to erupt at any moment.
“What exactly do you want?”
Gu Mang fell silent again. He returned to the shelf, took down the little earthenware jar in which he kept his money, and carefully took out the gold shell coin. Without a word, he held it out to Mo Xi.
“Then take this back.”
“…”
“Goodbye.”
“…………………”
A long, dead silence followed.
Suddenly, with a sharp rustle, Mo Xi snatched the bamboo slip away, thrusting it right in front of Gu Mang’s face.
“You’ve spent the last two years scraping out a miserable existence here, engaging in these filthy, degrading, unspeakable activities. How does it feel? Are you happy? Satisfied? Someone slaps you across the face and gives you a little money, and you can just make do with a life like that, is that it?!”
At last, the molten fury broke through its restraints. All the rage he had been suppressing erupted in a torrent.
Mo Xi panted, his eyes blazing scarlet, yet his own eyes were wet with tears.
“You’ll sleep with men like that? Are you still the Gu Mang I used to know? Look at what you’ve become! I actually used to be friends with someone like you. I even argued with other people for your sake. I actually once thought of you as my… my…”
He could not finish. His lips trembled with fury.
His violent emotions affected the spirit-powered lamps and candles in the room. Their flames shuddered, making the light flicker between brightness and darkness as the shadows of the two men faced one another.
Mo Xi seized Gu Mang by the collar. With nowhere to retreat, Gu Mang only ended up with his robes disheveled. They were practically nose to nose, their eyes locked at point-blank range.
Mo Xi’s chest heaved violently as he stared at Gu Mang for a moment. Then his gaze suddenly dropped, falling on Gu Mang’s bare shoulder.
It was covered in bruises, purple and blue marks left by lashes from a whip…
Mo Xi felt a deafening buzz inside his head, as though something had snapped. Amid the scarlet fury in his eyes, another emotion suddenly surfaced, growing alongside his blazing anger—an emotion he could not even put into words himself.
Driven by it, he abruptly raised a hand and clamped it hard around Gu Mang’s jaw, shoving him violently against the cabinet. His other hand slammed against the wood beside Gu Mang’s face as his tall frame pressed down over him.
The candle flames struggled desperately, but they could not withstand the vicious surge of spiritual power bursting from Mo Xi. In an instant, they went out.
In the darkness, Mo Xi stared at Gu Mang’s face, so close that he could barely see anything else. His rough, calloused fingers ground harshly across Gu Mang’s cheek and lips. His voice was both furious and hoarse.
He was so consumed by resentment and rage that he failed to notice the strange look in Gu Mang’s eyes, or the fleeting astonishment that crossed them.
“So, as long as you can stay alive, as long as you can get a little money, you’ll let anyone do anything to you, is that it?”
Gu Mang seemed to be in too much pain from the pressure of Mo Xi’s grip. His face gradually flushed red, and at last he broke his silence, struggling beneath Mo Xi’s hand.
But Mo Xi had already run out of reason. He could not see Gu Mang’s suffering at all.
All around them was darkness, a deathly blackness. From the rooms on either side came the sounds of men and women, seeping through the walls from every direction, relentlessly reminding Mo Xi of what kind of place this was, what Gu Mang did here, and what the two of them could do here.
Mo Xi was faintly startled by the terrifying thought that flashed through his mind. His scalp prickled.
He had never entertained such thoughts about Gu Mang before.
He was too upright, so upright that no matter how intimate their relationship became, no matter how deeply they cared for each other, he had always believed they could only ever be the best of friends.
For all those years, he had respected Gu Mang, loved him, treasured him. He had treated Gu Mang as the greatest treasure in his heart—as his fire, his hero. So no matter how many hints he had been given, he had never thought of anything beyond friendship. Even when he had seen the opening lines of the preface to that Forbidden Book, he had merely wondered what there could possibly be between friends that would need to be forbidden.
But there was no doubt about what he had seen: a man reeking of alcohol had emerged from Gu Mang’s room. Mo Xi had seen with his own eyes that Gu Mang was willing to provide certain services to people here.
He was an undercover police officer. Over the years, some of the cases he had handled had involved male sex workers. The very thought of such things disgusted him. And now Gu Mang was actually doing this kind of work. His disgust surged into an overwhelming torrent of jealousy and fury.
The woman in the neighboring room seemed to have been brought to the height of pleasure. In the darkness, certain sounds were so clear they might as well have been right beside his ear. Gu Mang’s desperate struggles for breath, meanwhile, were taken by Mo Xi as shameless seduction.
Mo Xi’s eyes slowly darkened. Within them, molten iron churned and boiled, scorching hot—whether from anger or something else.
Shameless.
…Utterly shameless!
“Let… go…”
“…”
Mo Xi did not release him. He merely let out a cold laugh, a sound containing not the slightest trace of satisfaction, only the deepest disappointment and jealousy.
He was engulfed by hatred—or perhaps something else as well. Sparks seemed to crackle through his voice, which had grown so hoarse that even he found it hard to believe. He bent down and spoke beside Gu Mang’s ear, his teeth clenched.
“What did you want me to choose? Do you really want to sleep with me?”
He had acted far too impulsively.
The moment the words left his mouth, even he was shaken by what he had said.
Mo Xi almost never used language like that. He was the sort of man who would frown even at Yue Chenqing telling a dirty joke. Yet at this moment, he had been driven nearly mad, blurting out one sentence after another without thinking—vicious, threatening, brutal.
Words that revealed the beast lurking beneath the surface.
Words born of despair.
Mo Xi cursed under his breath and suddenly slammed his fist into the shelf. The little earthenware jar where Gu Mang kept his money wobbled a few times before crashing to the floor with a sharp crash, shattering into pieces.
Mo Xi instinctively turned his head. His gaze swept over the scene, and he paid it little attention at first. Only a moment later did he suddenly realize what had happened.
He abruptly released Gu Mang’s throat, straightened up, and turned to look at the floor.
A sliver of moonlight shone in through the window.
Inside the little earthenware money jar, there had been nothing at all…
Gu Mang had not received even a single, tiniest white shell coin.
The jar had been empty.