HOYSE CHAPTER 47

Chapter 47 — That Split Second

Rong Jing scooped Gu Xi up and carried him into the bedroom, laid him on the bed, and pulled a blanket over him.

Even asleep, Gu Xi’s brows were drawn tight.

The reason he had reacted so sharply was tied to how harshly society polices Omegas.

In the original host’s memories, Omegas did get special treatment in public life, yet in exchange both Alphas and Betas piled them with special standards: an Omega should be pure, spotless, without a trace of stain.

No matter how independent Gu Xi was, he still lived inside that larger atmosphere. It could not help but rub off.

Like online. After Gu Xi uploaded the video of an Alpha forcing his way into his home, most people applauded him for exposing a predator and giving these lawless Alphas a lesson. A small but noisy group though, insisted it was Gu Xi’s fault, that an Omega ought to stay home and mind the household, not show his face in public.

Because the post sat on the trending list, agencies had already stepped in.

By the time Xu Shengteng walked out, Shengteng Entertainment would be a different world.

As for the fallout from Gu Xi skipping work, it had finally stopped being used against him. Most messages now begged him to protect himself and stay safe. Rong Jing felt that the Gu Xi he knew was not exactly the same as the long-suffering one described in the novel.

Even in a new era, the invisible shackles on Omegas had never truly gone away.

Not long ago a famous Omega actress had her private photos taken and leaked. Her agent ignored her for days, and by the time they checked on her she had already taken her own life.

With Gu Xi’s proud and chilly temperament, once he knew there were cameras in his home, how could he bear the thought of strangers watching him.

Rong Jing went to the living room and examined the devices he had ripped out. Most were solar powered. Because they had been hidden in dark, tucked-away spots, there had not been enough light to charge them, so they had shut down.

Which meant most of the cameras probably had not been recording Gu Xi’s day-to-day.
He also noticed most units were from Pyson Technology, with some odds and ends from small brands, all with different manufacturing dates.

So it hadn't just been one group involved, had it?

Just then the tech brought his detector out of the bathroom. “No devices in there.”

Nearly every room in the house had been wired, yet the bathroom had not. Perhaps it had been wired and someone else had removed those.

Rong Jing’s hunch hardened.

Gu Xi had more than one scumbag trying to get at him, which meant the bathroom was a no-go zone between them, a forbidden space none of them were allowed to touch.

And the ones able to help set all this up for those scumbags and remove the bathroom cameras without Gu Xi noticing were probably from his agency.

In the novel, Shengteng had not only treated Gu Xi like dirt.

There were other victims. If Xu Shengteng and Yang Qi felt cozy in detention, time to change that. Rong Jing called Zhou You and told him to reach out to the rest of Shengteng’s artists, especially the second and third tiers. If anyone wanted to press charges against the two, they would get a lawyer for free and cover court costs.

Win or lose, those two would be infamous. No comeback tour in this industry.

Next problem: the cameras.

If the batteries were dead, would the voyeurs really accept going blind? The will of this world would not hand him answers, so he worked from logic.

He swept the apartment with his eyes, room by room, slow and methodical.

His gaze stopped near an oil painting in the living room where a pair of European wall sconces hung.
Ironwork arms, and beneath each a half-dome of colored glass the size of half a fist. When someone walked by, the glass glimmered and shifted. It's pretty and matches the room’s blue palette.

He studied it, moved in close. Nothing else looked especially suspicious. This light was too pretty for its own good.

If you suspect, then act.

Rong Jing grabbed a glass from the coffee table and smashed the colored half-dome. Behind the glass was a hollow, and behind the wall a sizeable cavity, a through-hole that connected to the apartment next door.

Anyone on the other side could watch everything that happened here. The building had two units per landing. No need to guess who was on the other side.

He moved to pick up a shard and the tech stopped him. A cut on the young master would be hard to explain to the boss.

Rong Jing motioned that he understood and waved for him to call Zhou You up. He inspected the materials front and back. This was the same principle as a one-way mirror. From Gu Xi’s side it looked like decorative art glass.

So dead cameras had not been enough for a certain pervert.

They needed the direct feed, a live view, to get their thrills.

Maybe the smash had been too loud. The person on the other side seemed to have noticed. With his ear to the hole, Rong Jing caught faint sounds.

The glass had muffled noise before, which was why Gu Xi could live here for years and never realize it.
Now that it was gone, the sound carried.

Rong Jing’s eyes flicked around and landed on a set of throwing darts mounted on the wall.

He did not hesitate, took one down, waited until the rolling noise beyond went still, counted three in his head, and flicked his wrist.

“Ah—!”

A scream ripped from the other side.

Not perfect form, but the aim was true. He felt faint satisfaction. Even if the target flinched, the dart still kissed the surface of an eyeball.

Anger and shock had spiked so high that now there was not an ounce of guilt.

After this, that guy would likely have nightmares about holes in walls.

Peep again, I dare you.

The wavering moans drifted like background music through the living room. Zhou You, just arriving, felt his scalp prickle.

Glass everywhere, a punched-through wall, and that hole. The more he thought about it the worse it got. How could something this depraved be hidden so well?!

Now how to turn the cameras into leverage and toss the pervert in the trash. Perhaps the screaming was too shrill. In the bedroom, Gu Xi’s eyes snapped open.

He sat up. Something in his gaze changed. His whole person seemed to turn siren, every small movement soaked in temptation.

Barefoot, he padded across the floor into the living room, saw Rong Jing, and saw the hole made for spying.

“Young master,” Zhou You called.

Rong Jing turned. He caught only Gu Xi’s back, already leaving the room.

By the time he rushed after him, Gu Xi was at the neighbor’s door, pressing the bell.

Inside, the household staff were panicked, trying to stanch Yuan Jueling’s bleeding eye. The camera feed showed the culprit, so they flung the door open. Before the servant could speak, something flashed in Gu Xi’s hand and struck fast and true.

No time to cry out. Gu Xi’s stun baton dropped the servant where he stood.

Rong Jing arrived in time to see the hit. Before he could close the distance, Gu Xi slipped inside and slammed the door in everyone’s face.

He had not expected Gu Xi to have this much nerve, walking alone into a room with two Alphas.
Rong Jing took the steps in three long strides and pounded on the door. “Gu Xi, open up.”

He had planned on handling the scum with legal means, but Gu Xi looked ready to do something reckless.

He could not blame him. Anyone in this situation might snap.

He was not worried about the scum. He was worried about Gu Xi getting dragged down with them.

Rong Jing knew how much Gu Xi cared about his career, which is why he always tried to handle things in a way that spared Gu Xi’s name and body as much as possible.

He could not let these bastards destroy him. In the novel, after the Maya Mall incident, Gu Xi had faded completely from public view. He was not going to let that repeat.

Inside, Gu Xi stepped over the fallen servant, stun baton still warm in his hand, and walked barefoot into the living room.

He saw the hole in the wall that matched the sconce on his side, which had been covered by a wall ornament.

He had come here many times over the years. Now he knew what that ornament was hiding.

On the floor, Xu Juelian had tumbled from his wheelchair. He writhed, a hand clamped over his ruined right eye, nothing like the cultivated gentleman from the matching center.

Gu Xi’s mind flashed with the early days, the smiles, the kindness, the lazy weekends they had spent together, and something inside him split.

He knew the primary persona had counted Xu Juelian a friend.

One of the very few who had ever qualified for that word.

All those moments, all that trust, now tasted like honey hand-poured over poison, silently mocking him. So it had all been a lie.

Do you know this? I hate you more than the other perverts.

Because you shattered my trust in people piece by piece, right in front of me.

Gu Xi walked over and drew a small knife from his pocket.

His eyes slid downward. Xu Juelian, at some point, had already sprung to attention below.

Does peeping get you high enough to crest the peak of life?

Pain surged through Xu Juelian. He had sensed the danger and moved just in time, but the dart still cut across his eyelid and grazed his eye.

He was about to shout for his servant when, through the haze, he saw Gu Xi straddling him, knife in hand and ready to move.

Terror flashed across his face. This was not Gu Xi. This was a seductive demon.

Danger closed in and his usual cool deserted him. He almost pleaded. “Gu… Gu Xi, I can explain. We have been neighbors for years. I never meant you harm. Please believe me. It was not me.”

Gu Xi did not even blink. Xu Juelian tried for sentiment. “Have you forgotten the good times?”

“I remember,” Gu Xi said. Every second of them.

He glanced to one corner of the room where a giant oil painting stood. The subject half draped in a red sheet, profile lowered, a delicate wing of a butterfly’s back bared to the viewer.

Roses blanketed the black ground, gorgeous enough to intoxicate.

If no one pointed it out, you would not see it. If you compared deliberately, the subject looked very much like Gu Xi.

Gu Xi smiled, a siren’s smile. “What is it called?”

“Spring Night…” Xu Juelian, caught in the trance of Gu Xi’s look, answered without thinking, forgetting even the pain in his eye.

Something usually hidden under a blanket down below came to fervid life. From the first glance he had wanted to see this man called Gu Xi bloom on his bed.

A snow lotus on a mountaintop has a different face when it flowers. That is the real lure.

“I see,” Gu Xi murmured.

The blade flashed and fell. He struck the place that was still swollen with excitement.

In that split second, Xu Juelian’s eyes rolled white. He blacked out from the pain.

“That toy,” Gu Xi said softly, “you are better off without it.”

Blood spread fast, soaking his lower body. Gu Xi licked the corner of his lip.

He held the knife. Blood seeped through his fingers and trickled along the webbing.

He knelt there, motionless.

“Gu Xi. Gu Xi!”

The voice calling from far away tugged him back from the edge.

He looked at his hand, raised high. If he had not heard the pounding at the door, he would have brought the blade down a second time.

That man at the door.

And a sliver of refusal to become a criminal.

Gu Xi forced his hand to lower and stood. He went to open the door.

Rong Jing saw the blood on his hand as he stepped inside. He looked past him at Xu Juelian on the floor and could not tell if he was dead or alive.

Not good. This was aggravated assault.

He told Zhou You to check. Zhou You took one look at the wound and felt a cold draft creep up his spine. Seeing Rong Jing’s calm face, he could only admire him.

He bent, checked for breath, and gave Rong Jing a nod.

Rong Jing let out a slow exhale. Alive meant there was room to maneuver.

“Bind the wound. Stop the bleeding.” As long as he did not die, everything else could be handled. This scum did not deserve to stain Gu Xi with a life.

In the book, that knife had originally landed on Wu Fenyu. Now the target had changed.

The world had its own way of running. The plot would always bend back in some inscrutable pattern.

Rong Jing looked at Gu Xi. Gu Xi looked back, yet something in him was completely different from his usual cool. It was as if his whole aura had turned over.

He stared blankly at Rong Jing. Sometime during the chaos, a smear of blood had marked his cheek. He looked deranged and wicked, still as a painting, the air itself suspended.

Rong Jing spoke at once. “There were no cameras in your bathroom.”

So you were not exposed there and Gu Xi never had the habit of undressing in the bathroom with the door open anyway.

Gu Xi’s eyes seemed to shift.

He still did not move, as if studying Rong Jing.

Rong Jing said something he had wanted to say all along. “No matter what they did, none of it is your fault. The ones at fault are the abusers. It has never been the victim.”

Gu Xi looked at him. The red filmed over his eyes receded.

He finally understood why the primary persona would accept no one but this man. Because this man’s presence felt like sunlight warming a damp, shadowed corridor, arriving quietly and warm.

Gu Xi’s lips curved. It looked like a smile, yet also like a sob.

There were too many feelings folded into that expression. It drew the eye like a magnet.

He stepped in, rose on tiptoe, and before Rong Jing could react, his red mouth brushed his Adam’s apple and bit lightly.

The softness vanished in an instant. His lips formed two hushed words. “I know.”

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