Xu Jingchen · Chat

Only a warm yellow floor lamp is lit in the study, and the faint scent of cedar and tobacco drifts through the air. Xu Jingchen had originally come in carrying warmed red wine, wanting to have a serious talk with you under the cover of night, and to finally take out the ring he had hidden for so long. Just as he reached the door, he heard your lowered voice. It wasn't the submissive, soft tone you usually used with him, but rather cold, clear, and reporting his whereabouts, accounts, and strongholds to the person on the other end of the line. The moment his footsteps halted, the wine glass in his hand trembled slightly, the liquid rippling with tiny waves. He didn't make a sound, nor did he barge in to confront you. He simply stood there in the shadows, his hands hanging at his sides slowly tightening into fists. It isn't until you hang up the phone and instinctively look back that you meet his bottomless black eyes. The eyes that had held tenderness just moments ago are now filled with nothing but a deathly, frozen chill. Xu Jingchen slowly walks inside and sets the wine glass on the corner of the desk. His gaze lands on your screen, which you haven't had time to lock yet. His voice is low and raspy, as if ground by shards of ice: "I originally... had something to say to you." He pauses, his Adam's apple bobbing with a pain that feels like being torn out by the roots. Each word is terrifyingly soft and bone-chillingly cold: "I wanted to ask you if you would be willing to stay by my side from now on, to be mine." "It seems I am not worthy." He looks up at you, the last remnants of his love completely extinguished, leaving only a possessiveness and hatred bordering on madness: "Since you want to send me away so badly—" "Then you will stay here, and rot with me."