AM Chapter 60

60. Charges

Leaving the bustling main street, Chen Mo walked for more than ten minutes, finally managing to find a bar that opened at 4 PM nearby, guided by his phone’s navigation.

This was a small, niche bar with good online reviews and a stylish decor.

Standing in front of the bar, Chen Mo looked up at the wooden sign outside that was indeed quite charming, and unconsciously swallowed.

He had clearly promised Liang Jingren that he wouldn’t go to places like bars anymore, but now he might have to break his promise.

He felt like he was betraying Liang Jingren. Chen Mo thought.

But he was simply thirsty and wanted to find a drink, and also sit down and rest. Besides, this was just a (qing ba, referring to a bar that doesn’t serve strong drinks and is more chill), and he didn’t even think he could have a romantic encounter at a time when even dinner wasn’t close.

He didn’t plan to drink alcohol, nor did he plan to make friends, his biggest purpose besides wanting to rest and have something cold to drink, was to take the opportunity to send a location and a message to provoke Liang Jingren—

“I’m going into a bar, if you don’t call me soon, if I get drunk, I won’t be able to drive back and cook for you.”

Liang Jingren was probably looking at his phone because he replied almost instantly, saying:

“Got it, I’ll eat by myself tonight, remember to come home after you’ve had enough fun, be safe.”

After reading the message, Chen Mo stormed into the bar and ordered three of the highest-rated signature cocktails, fuming.

As the bartender handed him the first drink, Chen Mo noticed that Liang Jingren had sent him another message, and he hurriedly shouted “Stop!” to the bartender who was preparing to mix the second drink.

But when he opened the chat window, the new message Liang Jingren sent was a commanding reminder full of paternal care:

“If you drink alcohol, call a designated driver!”

“Sir, do you still want the other drinks?” the bartender asked, wiping the shaker.

“Yes!” Chen Mo glared, “And help me contact a designated driver! One that’s breathtakingly handsome!”

After three cocktails, Chen Mo leaned groggily on the bar, the bright screen in front of him displaying messages he had sent that hadn’t received any response.

Chen Mo thought, maybe Liang Jingren wasn’t looking at his phone.

Or maybe it was because all the things he sent were just rambling, useless stuff that Liang Jingren wasn’t interested in and found annoying.

He had sent Liang Jingren so many messages, saying that he had met a talent scout while shopping today and learned some inside information about the star-making industry, but that the talent scout was so annoying and followed him all the way, and that he had only managed to shake him off by reluctantly going into a bar.

——He absolutely didn’t mean to “play” outside!!

His head was throbbing with heat from the alcohol. Chen Mo stared at the last attempt at justification he had sent five minutes ago, feeling both aggrieved and uncomfortable, and a little teary.

He wanted to go home.

He should just go home and honestly admit his mistakes to Liang Jingren, he shouldn’t have run away from home. Chen Mo thought.

So, before dinnertime approached, he raised his head from the bar, straightened up, took a deep breath—he called Liang Jingren.

Liang Jingren only answered the phone after two minutes, so his phone probably wasn’t with him.

The moment the call connected, Chen Mo breathed a sigh of relief, thinking:

Thank goodness he answered.

The ringtone during the two-minute wait had tormented him enough; he felt like it had been two centuries.

“What’s wrong? You’re already drunk so early, do you want me to come pick you up and take you home?” Liang Jingren asked on the phone.

Chen Mo gripped the phone excitedly, and at the same time, the corner of his eye shifted away from the phone screen close to his ear.

He noticed someone coming to his right.

That person didn’t sit on a stool but stood next to him.

“Brother Ren…” Chen Mo’s voice trembled slightly.

He realized that he might not be able to go home—

Little Zhuang had come to find him.

“Save me.”

The call was disconnected.

His phone was turned off. Little Zhuang, using the excuse of low battery, took his phone and handed it to the bartender inside the bar, asking the kind bartender to leave it at the counter to charge.

“If you don’t want to be shocked, come with me, Chen Mo.” Little Zhuang was holding a stun gun in his hand. It was a method Liang Jingyu had used on him before.

Chen Mo nodded and got up to follow Little Zhuang out of the bar.

After getting into the car, his eyes were covered tightly with cloth.

Chen Mo didn’t know the time, didn’t know the route, didn’t know the location.

After getting out of the car, he could only put his hand on Little Zhuang’s shoulder and follow him.

They seemed to have gone down a level, and the surrounding air became damp and cold.

A few minutes later, Chen Mo felt that his situation was like some religious celebrity, with his hands and feet fixed on a cross.

But his cross seemed to be made of iron, and it was very cold.

After tying Chen Mo up in the basement of the unfinished building, Little Zhuang went up to the ground and shouted to the man standing on the muddy sand, surrounded by weeds, smoking a cigarette: “Brother, it’s done.”

The man turned around with a cigarette in his hand, raised a smiling lip, and said, “Okay, you go back.”

Little Zhuang raised his foot and walked towards the car parked on the roadside not far away.

But in the end, he couldn’t help but stop and run back to Liang Jingyu.

“Brother, don’t hurt Chen Mo! I don’t want you to go in again!” Little Zhuang grabbed Liang Jingyu’s hand holding the cigarette excitedly, and cigarette ash fell on their hands as he trembled, “Or let me do it! Brother can just direct from behind! I’ll do it!”

Liang Jingyu used his other hand to rub his head hard, and said with a smile: “Don’t.”

Then, Liang Jingyu raised the hand Little Zhuang had grabbed and brought it to his mouth, taking a puff of cigarette.

“Don’t worry…” Liang Jingyu exhaled the smoke very slowly, “I know what I’m doing.”

Little Zhuang let go of his hands that were holding him, but he still stayed where he was.

Liang Jingyu told him to hurry up and seize the last time the farmers market was open to buy vegetables, as he had delayed dinner time today and he had to go back to eat supper at night.

“And then we’ll take a bath together,” Liang Jingyu smiled.

The effect was not ideal. Little Zhuang was unmoved.

Liang Jingyu rubbed the cigarette butt and thought for a while, then said: “Come pick me up in an hour, just one hour, it’ll be quick. I just want to ask Chen Mo something, and after I ask him, I’ll let him go, I don’t want to torture him for long.”

Little Zhuang hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth and said, “Brother must come out safe and sound, and happily, let’s go home together.”

This time Liang Jingyu really smiled, happily smiled, and said: “I think I like you more and more, A-Nian.”

Little Zhuang looked at him seriously and said: “I’ve always liked Brother.”

Liang Jingyu met his eyes with a blurred smile, and the cigarette between his fingers raised to his mouth swayed slightly.

At the moment when he put down his hand and leaned forward, the sparks were made brighter by the wind.

He kissed Little Zhuang with a heart full of affection.

Little Zhuang immediately raised his chin to respond to him, hooked his waist, and circled him tightly in his arms.

Their lips and tongues were tightly entangled, their breaths intertwined, the trembling of their close chests became synchronized, and it climbed steadily with the setting of the sun.

Before long, a fire-like red glow enveloped the weedy sandy ground in front of the unfinished building.

Liang Jingyu pushed Little Zhuang away first, “Continue in an hour, wait for me.”

Little Zhuang stared into his eyes and said, “Okay.”

Liang Jingyu lit a brand new cigarette and started smoking before walking into the unfinished building.

He recalled Little Zhuang’s words as he went downstairs, thinking: Safety is definitely no problem, but happiness…

It’s impossible to be happy.

Even though it’s been two months, I still get angry when I think about it.

Liang Jingyu pursed his lips and took a hard puff of cigarette.

The basement was very empty, with only a single fluorescent tube installed on the top, which only lit up after connecting the mobile power supply brought by Little Zhuang. The dusty cement floor originally only had a rusty surveying table in the middle, but now some tools were placed on that table—tools Liang Jingyu usually played with Little Zhuang.

Paddles, whips, candles, clips…

He didn’t plan to use them all on Chen Mo, Chen Mo wasn’t worthy, he just conveniently stuffed the whole bag in the car and asked Little Zhuang to bring it over.

Liang Jingyu stood in front of the blindfolded man whose hands and feet were bound in a cross shape, quietly smoking and thinking:

This person, no, this thing that’s not a person, only deserves to be used with coarse rope and broken leather whips.

“Who is it?” The blindfolded Chen Mo couldn’t see anything, but he could hear the voice and smell the cigarette smoke, “…Brother Ren?”

Liang Jingyu squinted his eyes looking at him, took one last puff of cigarette and then threw the cigarette butt on the cement floor, stepped forward and tore off the cloth strip.

Chen Mo’s eyes were suddenly hit with a flashbang, he painfully tightened his eyelids, slowly opening his eyes after a while.

As he made out the person standing in front of him, the sneer that entered his ears made him feel despair:

“Haha, do I look that much like Little Ren? We’re clearly two brothers born to the same parents, but everyone says we don’t look alike~”

“Although a lot of people praise me for being good-looking, I actually envy Little Ren’s appearance more. He’s handsome, with masculine features. Especially when he wears motorcycle gear and rides a motorcycle.”

“I don’t like him doing such dangerous things, but I have to admit that he looks really cool and powerful when he rides a motorcycle.”

“Don’t you think so too, Chen Mo?”

After quietly listening to Liang Jingyu say so much, he finally paused for a moment, Chen Mo squeezed out only one sentence from his dry throat: “I’m sorry…Please let me go…”

Liang Jingyu coldly raised his chin to look at him, looking at this shrewd thing that knew to apologize.

Now he’s showing an innocent, pitiful expression that makes kind people feel sympathy at first glance.

Liang Jingyu bit his back teeth, unable to suppress the anger in his heart, broke the cigarette butt and suddenly raised his hand towards the surprised and wide-eyed Chen Mo—

The phone rang.

Liang Jingyu put down his hand and threw the cigarette butt folded into a sharp angle against the wall. He took two deep breaths, turned and walked to the surveying table to answer the phone call from his younger brother.

“Why did you suddenly think of calling your brother? Have you eaten dinner?”

“Ha, I thought you were calling to ask me to dinner, you were originally looking for someone…”

Liang Jingyu turned his head, the corners of his eyes shot out cold knives, stabbing fiercely at the person tied to the steel frame in the corner.

The frightened Chen Mo was staring at him at this time, completely ignoring his eye knives, his expression revealing a hint of undisguised expectation.

Liang Jingyu sneered silently, and said to the person anxiously inquiring on the phone: “He’s here with me, I’m preparing to entertain him well tonight, I’ll send you a message tomorrow after he sobers up~”

Liang Jingren didn’t believe his “entertainment” would be anything good, and roared into the phone with a voice that was about to pierce his eardrums: “Liang Jingyu, what exactly do you want to do?!!!”

“What do I want to do?” Liang Jingyu took the phone away a bit and smiled, then raised his neck, looking at the corner with a contemptuous expression, his tone as cold as ice, without any emotional color, saying: “I want to chop off his dick.”

After speaking, Liang Jingyu hung up the phone.

He put the phone on silent and placed it on the surveying table, then selected a rough whip from the tool bag.

While unraveling the tangled whip, he said to the man with a possible back full of cold sweat: “Don’t be afraid, I will return you to Liang Jingren, but before that, I want you to answer a few questions first.”

Before long, the unraveled whip was wrapped around Liang Jingyu’s hand, and Liang Jingyu’s hand touched Chen Mo’s pale face.

“First question—”

It was also the only and most important question.

“Did you rape Liang Jingren?”