Chapter 10 — Green Tea Today, Black Tea Tomorrow

Up on the third floor, he leaned against the doorframe, speaking in a low, resigned tone. Lock me in. Then close the door and get out of here. I did as he asked. Just as I turned on my heel to leave, his voice stopped me, sounding almost like a desperate plea. Can you leave that plush dog with me? It still carries your scent. The doctor says I can use suppressants, but I haven't overcome the withdrawal symptoms yet, so I still need something that smells like you to calm the fever down. I unhooked the pink plush puppy hanging from my handbag and placed it gently into his open palm. Try not to hurt yourself, okay? He nodded, his voice softening to a mere whisper. I'll be fine. Go home now. That other guy is probably getting jealous again.

I walked slowly down the stairs, but by the time I reached the first floor, a memory of the agonizing, gut-wrenching screams I had heard a month ago flashed through my mind. The doctor had explicitly warned me that under no circumstances could he be allowed to suffer further physical harm this time around. Hesitating for a moment, I spun around and hurried back up to the third floor. Just as I approached the door, a loud, violent crash echoed from inside, followed immediately by a shriek of such profound agony and despair that it was an exact replica of the haunting cries from last month. Through the heavy wood, the fragmented, weak sounds bled out, squeezing my heart until it ached. I had never truly understood that an unsoothed rut could push a person to such unimaginably cruel depths of suffering. In the past, whenever he entered his heat, he merely grew clingy and erratic, endlessly wrapping himself around me from dawn until dusk, and when exhaustion finally claimed me, he would pull me tightly into his embrace as if I were his most treasured possession.

My hand hovered over the brass doorknob. After a single second of hesitation, I finally hardened my resolve, pushed the door open, and stepped inside.

Tu Wang!

The scene that greeted my eyes left me breathless with shock. He had somehow wrenched free from one side of the heavy iron chains, hurling his battered body against the walls like a madman. Finally, the origin of those terrible bruises became painfully clear. Under the harsh, brilliant glare of the overhead lights, I saw it for the very first time—his tail. It was a stunning, delicate shade of pale pink, resembling a lily of the valley just bursting into bloom. My mind instantly drew a connection to the two plush dogs, one pink and one black. It seemed the pink one represented him, while the black one belonged to Yun Tu. What a pair of calculating, scheming beasts.

I crept closer, moving with measured steps. He seemed to sense my presence, his frantic energy instantly subsiding as he quietly shrank back into the corner of the room, as though desperate to hide himself away. His voice came in broken, hesitant fragments. Please don't be afraid of me, alright? My tail... it isn't disgusting. I'm not scared at all. Your tail is actually... quite beautiful. To be entirely honest, my tolerance for tails had grown exponentially by this point. Yun Tu's black tail had thoroughly steeled my nerves. As long as they did not suddenly transform into actual serpents right in front of my eyes, I figured I could manage.

He still seemed entirely untethered from reality, relying solely on my familiar scent to navigate the world. Before I could even draw another breath, he lunged forward. His entire body was mapped with fresh wounds, making him look heartbreakingly pathetic. By sheer instinct, he buried his face into the crook of my neck, his hot breath brushing against my collarbone and instantly snapping me back to my senses. I immediately pushed him away with both hands. We can't do this here. I had naively believed that a simple embrace would suffice. Whenever I had suffered in the past, he would hold me through the entire night until the storm passed. But this time was entirely different.

His dark eyes suddenly clouded over, revealing a raw, unfiltered sense of grievance. He tilted his head slightly, wearing the dazed, bewildered expression of a discarded puppy. Why won't you kiss me? I get it now. I'm toxic. Nobody actually likes me. Not even you.

He curled inward, pressing his back against the base of the wall like an abandoned kitten. The severity of his affliction, compounded by severe skin-hunger syndrome, made his sobs sound dangerously close to breaking point. He clutched the pink plush puppy fiercely against his chest, doubling over as one hand suddenly pressed hard against a wound on his abdomen. His voice came out in a muffled, aggrieved whine. It hurts so much. Why don't you want me anymore?

The mere memory of those miserable, pleading eyes from that day flooded my chest with an overwhelming wave of guilt. Unconsciously, his fingers began to scratch at his own injuries. I sprang forward, locking my fingers around his wrists to pull his hands away. Stop touching it! It'll get infected! I pulled him into a tight embrace, my hands moving in soothing circles down his back. Feeling the sudden warmth of safety, his rigid muscles slowly began to slacken. So... can I hold you now? I gave a silent nod.

Wave after wave of carnal desire surged upward, crashing against him and demanding total surrender. And that fierce, intoxicating emotion soon began to bleed into me as well. My spine pressed hard against the freezing marble tiles. His eyes—once so cunning and bewitching—were now swimming with a misty, wet sheen. He had utterly captivated my soul, leaving me completely at his mercy. I allowed him to trace every inch of skin, waking up a smoldering fire that had long lain dormant deep within me. Reason, morality, right, wrong—everything was cast heedlessly to the wind. It felt as though we had slipped backward in time to our seemingly flawless days. Just the two of us. Just pure, unadulterated devotion.

Yet, I was the first to claw my way back to consciousness. And the very instant I did, a crushing tide of sorrow swept through me, tightening like a whirlpool around my heart. I knew all too well that choosing one inevitably meant inflicting a cruel wound upon the other.

I'm sorry.

He had no choice but to release me. His breathtaking eyes were stained with a profound, quiet melancholy as he gazed down at me without a word. His voice was cracked, laden with a heavy, desolate resignation. Yeah. I suppose I never really had the right to stay anyway. The person you chose... was never me.

The shrill ringing of my mobile phone shattered the silence, violently dragging me back to harsh reality. Little Dumpling, are you seriously still lingering at that bastard's place?! The voice booming through the receiver was practically dripping with grievance and self-pity. I bolted upright, hastily accepting the call. I... I'm already on my way back! The voice on the other end instantly exploded into a fury. Liar! I'm standing right underneath your apartment building right now!

My heart skipped a beat. He was howling like a child whose favorite toy had just been snatched away. He's a complete fraud! He's just trying to steal you away from me! Only an idiot would fall for his 'I'm still recovering from my injuries' routine! I could tell the second I looked at him that he's nothing more than a green tea bitch! He even had the nerve to fake tears in front of you! Huu huu huu... you belong to me! He's just trying to seduce you!

Tuo Yun Song stormed directly up to the apartment. The moment their eyes met, the two of them lunged forward and instantly descended into a full-scale brawl. Let me see for myself if he's actually a lying piece of trash!

Yin Ci Xiu wore an expression of pure, fragile helplessness, refusing to throw a single punch in retaliation. The living room was quickly decimated into a chaotic battlefield. Panic paralyzed my vocal cords, forcing a frantic scream from my throat. Tuo Yun Song, have you completely lost your mind?!

That sharp shriek finally broke his momentum. He froze mid-swing, blinking down at his hands with a dazed, vacant expression. I scrambled across the floor, stumbling and dropping to my knees as I reached out to grab Yin Ci Xiu's ice-cold fingers, frantic worry bleeding into every syllable. He's your older brother! The doctor explicitly warned us that any further physical trauma could literally cost him his life!

Tuo Yun Song's lower lip quivered violently. He bit down hard, tears welling up in his eyes as he stared at me. You only get to choose one person, and you already chose me... It was all his fault! He didn't even fight back this time! He's just trying to win you back by acting pitiful! This world is so hopelessly unfair, huu huu huu...

He shuffled forward with a pathetic air of utter grievance, dropping into a deep squat beside me before grabbing my hand and shaking it like a neglected puppy throwing a temper tantrum over a stolen bone. It was entirely his fault! Minus ten points for him!

At that moment, I felt a distinct sensation of my temporal blood vessels preparing to detonate. On one side lay my battered, half-conscious older brother. On the other sat my fiercely logical younger brother, weeping as though he were about to be dragged off to cram school against his will. Why on earth couldn't I simply split myself into two identical people? That way... absolutely nobody would have to get hurt.

My brain officially shut down. I fled back to my own apartment, locking the door behind me to wallow in absolute isolation. The second I stepped into the living room, Kui Kui cheerfully trotted out holding two beautifully decorated pastries. Pick one?

I raised my head, staring at her with a thoroughly hollow expression and a soul that had clearly abandoned its earthly vessel. Can I just choose to drop dead instead? I was so stressed I felt like bursting into tears. I don't want to choose... Choosing the cherry cake means hurting the strawberry cake. Choosing the strawberry cake means hurting the cherry cake. I genuinely love both of them, so what am I supposed to do?! How is it even humanly possible for someone to fall in love with two different things at the exact same time?!

Kui Kui tilted her head, shooting me a deeply skeptical frown. Both of them belong to you, don't they? I literally just asked you which one you wanted to open and eat first. If you like them both so much... why don't you just eat both?

I burst into loud, theatrical tears like a toddler whose favorite plaything had just been confiscated. What if the strawberry cake and the cherry cake don't want to be eaten at the exact same time?!

Kui Kui narrowed her eyes, studying me with deep suspicion. I seriously get the distinct feeling you're dropping some wildly heavy metaphors right now...

In the dead of night. After listening to my chaotic retelling of the entire saga, she sat in heavy silence for a full minute before delivering a soul-piercing verdict. You've already made peace with dating actual supernatural monsters, yet you're suddenly trying to drag basic human moral standards into this? More importantly, when on earth have you ever been a monogamous person?

Meanwhile, on the other side of town. Tuo Yun Song was still howling like a feral cat whose territory had been invaded. She doesn't even want either of us anymore! Are you happy now?!

The other man simply sat in silence, casually inspecting an arm whose injuries had nearly fully healed. He raised the back of his hand to block the glaring overhead light, radiating a bone-chilling aura. You're unbearably noisy. If you hadn't helped me smash through that stubborn shell of mine... I wouldn't even deign to speak to you. If I were in your shoes, every single academy teaching the art of being a homewrecking mistress would be awarding me their highest honors for advanced students. You're just crying sour grapes because you can't have what I have. You're just jealous! You're the one who deserves an Academy Award for Best Actor! A cold-blooded monster suddenly masquerading as a sweet, green-tea manipulator—you damn near gave everyone a heart attack! To wedge your way in like this, you really put in a staggering amount of effort, didn't you?

Yin Ci Xiu shifted his posture, his tone remaining as placid and unruffled as still water. So what if I did? She loves me anyway. Frightened little rabbits are prone to panic, which is precisely why they always scramble to hide deep inside their burrows. Therefore, you have to exercise boundless patience. You have to use the things she loves most to coax her out into the open.

Eventually, a profound realization dawned upon me. Eating cherry cake today, and indulging in strawberry cake tomorrow—I could comfortably handle both. But if I tried to unwrap and consume them simultaneously... I simply couldn't swallow either. And so, I arrived at a definitive conclusion: to ensure neither the cherry cake nor the strawberry cake ever had to suffer another pang of jealousy, from this day onward, I was officially transitioning to... a thousand-layer mango crepe.

As I happily chewed on a bite of mango cake, I pulled out my phone and posted a new update to my WeChat moments: Today: reminiscing about cherry cake. Tomorrow: yearning for strawberry cake. And so it went... until the leaves lining the streets turned brittle and gold and fell entirely away, leaving me stubbornly committed to maintaining my online persona as an incorrigible romantic.

Someone once proclaimed: The Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things in existence. A truly stable structure requires precisely three distinct corners. But my tiny, fragile physique... simply could not sustain a torrid love triangle. My kidneys were staging a vocal protest: I... would actually prefer to live for a few more years.

By the time the very first snowflakes of winter began to drift down from the gray sky, an acquaintance from the high-society circle in Beijing decided to launch a brand-new enterprise—a premier club featuring elite male models. To celebrate its grand opening, she threw a lavish launch party where acquaintances enjoyed a fifty percent discount. The moment my nose caught the scent of unadulterated youthful beauty, I immediately reserved an entire row of the agency's top-tier models, dragging Kui Kui along in my wake.

And right now... I only have one thing to say. I regret this deeply. I am experiencing monumental levels of regret. The smile plastered across my face refuses to fade away. It's just that... its geographical location has shifted slightly.

From somewhere directly behind me, a familiar voice called out. Why are you running away? Darling, you're so utterly adorable.

[The End]