Chapter 18: CH 18

What Mo Qiu revealed corroborated exactly with what Shen Xiao Shi had revealed to me earlier, so he indeed had been scammed of his feelings by some scum.

However, Mo Qiu’s body had just been cleared of being in a critical condition, and this was also a public place so I was unable to ask more detailed questions. I could only first provide some words of comfort as I told him to not worry about it and we could deal with everything once his body recovered more. Mo Qiu had just lost copious amounts of blood and was also anaerobic, so he was soon fatigued after his outburst of tears. He was almost immediately knocked out as soon as he closed his eyes.

The day we left the hospital, I escorted him home. He stuttered and mumbled for me to stay for a while in his place, and poured me a cup of tea, then revealed he had something to give me. I sat on the sofa in the living room and he left to enter the bedroom. From the sounds emitted it seemed like he was shuffling through his belongings to look for something.

His room had the curtains drawn, so the light that peeked through was dim. On the floor were a piling heap of his possessions, so it was evident that Mo Qiu was not one who was good at tidying after himself.

That day when the police found him, he was lying on the tiles in his bathroom, on one side was a coal burner that was lit aflame and as for him, his wrist already had been slit.

In the two days where Shen Xiao Shi had been looking out for his home, he had also taken the time to clean the bathroom and the blood stains left on the tiles. After he had finished cleaning he sent me a text saying that he felt like the cleanup crew from all the crime thriller movies.

I sat waiting for a few minutes, then Mo Qiu single handedly carried a huge bunch of his belongings out from his bedroom. I saw that he was swaying slightly as he walked so I hurriedly walked up to take the items off him.

“Thank… thank you.” We collectively placed everything on the desk as he dropped onto the sofa, sinking within its recesses, the few steps he took already having broken him out into a sweat.

He lowered his head and stared at the bandages which wrapped around his left wrist and weakly but clearly enunciated his next words, “I don’t want all these things anymore, please help me get rid of them.”

I flipped through it all and saw that it was a huge heap of Luo Zheng Yun’s various portraits and posters, a lot of which had been signed by him personally.

I understood what this meant, but I still had to ask again, “You’re throwing all of this away?”

Mo Qiu nodded, his face half hidden by his fringe appearing frail and alabaster white. The light which had appeared in his eyes had now disappeared without a trace.

“I started speaking to him in the summer of last year… on one of the social media platforms.” His tone was calm, even slightly lifeless, “I used to always post comments on his posts or send him private messages, but he never replied to me, it was more like me talking to myself. That day, like I always did, I sent him a private message and told him what I did in a day and what I ate, then at the end I wrote that as usual, I would always support him and like him, but I didn’t think that he would actually reply to me and have me add his personal phone number. After that, we started conversing more regularly….”

It probably wasn’t Luo Zheng Yun’s first time doing something like this, he flirted and smoothly got what he wanted, he was masterful at leading a person on without ever actually committing, and was articulate with his words that were intimate one second then distant the next. He was able to wrap naive people around his little pinky, so that without ever even seeing the real person, they were beguiled to want to dedicate the rest of their lives to him.

Prey were only fit to be eaten when they were fattened, Luo Zheng Yun used half a year to raise Mo Qiu from a pitiful, small pond fish to a trophy worth pouncing on.

It was evident that he was meticulous and had put a lot of thought into his actions. When he thought that it was about time to lay down the trap, he used the excuse of meeting each other in real life for once, and baited Mo Qiu to a luxurious private club.

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Luo Zheng Yun, for all intents and purposes was dazzling beyond comparison, and a huge celebrity that millions of fans looked up to. For him to suddenly be interested in a person that was so ordinary no one else ever turned an eye to him, and for them to begin a secret relationship, it fulfilled the wildest dreams that Mo Qiu had thought of when imagined the two of them together.

He was completely captivated by this man and believed every saccharine phrase that came out of his mouth, as Mo Qiu fulfilled everything that was asked of him. He had fallen into the trap and was completely defenseless when he accepted the drink the other had given him, as he soon found his consciousness blurring and his body lethargic.

He had been drugged, and Luo Zheng Yun just sat across him, his legs crossed in a high and mighty manner, completely unphased as he revelled in Mo Qiu’s terrified, panicked struggle.

“I wanted to escape…”

But he was unable to do so, it was only a few steps but Luo Zheng Yun caught up to him from behind and covered up his mouth and nose as he dragged Mo Qiu to the bed.

Mo Qiu had accepted the invitation so he had naturally anticipated something like this might occur. He was an adult and so could be responsible for his actions, but he never thought that things would happen under such violent, oppressive circumstances.

“A grown man saying this might be really strange… but back then… I…” He choked with emotion, “I was really scared, it was really painful.”

Luo Zheng Yun liked seeing him break down, he forced himself onto him, humiliated him, and even caught all of Mo Qiu’s pleading and cries for help on tape. With that, he could extort Mo Qiu further in the future and so he could keep a recording of his work for himself to later appreciate.

“What you went through… have you considered calling the police?” It was my first time encountering an incident this cruel and disgusting. Despite having prepared myself for what was to come the truth still shattered my views on the world, my values and how I saw people. Truthfully, it fucked me up inside.

“He used a video tape to threaten me and said if I went to the police, he would spread it all on the internet. Plus…” Mo Qiu wiped the tears which had escaped, speaking again in a nasally voice, “A man forcing a man… how could that count as rape? If I called the police it would just end up in ridicule for me. He can afford to hire the most proficient and esteemed lawyers to defend him and the police would be able to instantly distort the truth. As for me… for me, apart from being humiliated, there’s nothing else that would come out of this.”

I was unable to hold back on my urge to take out a cigarette, as I lit one up and started smoking it.

“Bullshit that it’s not rape, if it’s not rape then was it consensual? You’re going to accept that?”

“Even if I don’t accept it, what can I do?” Mo Qiu appeared even more dejected, “After that time, he would often use the tape as a threat and coerce me to go meet him again, forcing me to take part in more of his videos… a wicked cycle then began. Each time he would be exceedingly cautious as well, I don’t have any evidence to hold against him.”

Luo Zheng Yun used half a year’s time to completely understand who Mo Qiu was as a person, and knew that with his personality there was no chance for defiance. There was also no one that he could go to to speak about this issue, so Luo Zheng Yun stopped holding back and carried out all his crimes without restraint.

The stress continued building up and with nowhere to go to relieve the pain, for Mo Qiu to escape reality he could only choose death.

“For scum like him, there’s no need.” The atmosphere surrounding us was stifling to the extreme, I let out a puff of smoke and couldn’t find any more comforting words to say, “Actually, you have evidence. You’re the best evidence. The chances may look slim but it’s not as if there isn’t any hope…”

Mo Qiu froze, then trembled timidly and spoke, “I… I can’t do it… you’ve seen it, from when I was younger I could never do anything.”

Seeing that he was quivering like a quail, I was angered but had nowhere to pin the blame on. It was because he was someone with a personality like this, that he was tyrannised mercilessly.

Yet, after my anger dissipated, I realised that I was only thinking from my perspective. I wasn’t Mo Qiu, and Mo Qiu was not me either. I wasn’t able to fully understand what he was feeling, and he naturally wouldn’t have my decisiveness.

At the end of the day, I wasn’t wrong, he wasn’t wrong, the person in the wrong was Luo Zheng Yun, the son of a bitch.

Mo Qiu seemed to understand what I was feeling, as the hand that wasn’t injured curled into a fist, his tone becoming increasingly timid, “I’m sorry, I caused trouble for you. I… I will go report this to the police, I won’t be held hostage to his threats anymore. It’s not like I need to see anyone in my line of work anyways, even if it blows up, I… I’ll be fine, at worst I’ll just never step outside my home again.”

Ai, hearing him speak like this, it felt like he was reporting things to the police because of me…

If he really went to the police and things blew up, with Luo Zheng Yun’s influence and affluence, he would undoubtedly be able to fan the flames of public speculation. Considering that, why did I get the feeling that Mo Qiu would break under the incessant societal criticism and as a result die even faster?

In the end, I wasn’t so righteous that I felt the need to expose every evil and be a force of justice for society. I just wanted to help Mo Qiu resolve this issue, not push him on another path resulting in death.

“Don’t say something reckless like that, you might be able to handle it for a month or two months. If it was a year, two years or even five, ten years, after you’ve tasted the inescapable, crushing loneliness, you wouldn’t be able to easily say something like ‘if worse comes to worst I’ll never step outside my home again.’”

To be trapped inside a fixed space and to feel the pain of passing each day within that small confined area, he had no idea of what it was like, so he was able to say such a naive phrase and allow emotions to affect his decisions.

“Alright, you go take a rest first.” I smothered the cigarette in a cup of tea that wasn’t touched and picked up a portrait on the table, “I’ll help you think of something.”

Two days later, Mo Qiu called, clearly panicked and said that Luo Zheng Yun contacted him again. He responded that he wasn’t feeling well and so refused, but Luo Zheng Yun seemed to be quite displeased with it. When Mo Qiu finished he broke down as he started crying again.

He apologised to me, and at the same time asked me what he should do.

I was just about to reassure him when he suddenly hung up the phone. When I got to his house and finally got him to open the door, I found that the bandage wrapped around his left arm had disappeared, and the wound which had been stitched up was now ripped apart again and was now bleeding.

My expression darkened as I brought him to the hospital to get stitches again. During the taxi ride there, at several instances I wanted to tell the driver to just continue driving straight towards the police office, but I knew that even if we went, Mo Qiu probably wouldn’t say a single word.

Mo Qiu’s deteriorating mental health with each passing day made it so I had no choice but to accelerate my plan.

There were actually many ways to deal with scum bastards. When you found that all the legal, proper routes were blocked off and unavailable, then you might need to find another way to get things done.

I didn’t have many friends, but I just so happened to have one who was associated with the entertainment circle.

Yi Da Zhuang had been a paparazzi for only a few years, but he had quite a few scoops on Luo Zheng Yun.

“Don’t be tricked by his looks that make him appear like he doesn’t associate with anyone else, within the circle he is actually known for his various escapades. However it has always been consensual on both sides, so there’s never been any problems. These scoops therefore have just always been passed on amongst us but never circulated further.” Yi Da Zhuang let out a puff of smoke as he continued, “I know which clubs and nightclubs he frequents, but he always has personal bodyguards following him around, so you won’t be able to corner him.”

“I didn’t want to block him off like that.” People passed by the shopfront and their expressions were either cold or closed off, no one had the time to care about anyone else, yet here I was watching out for the one person I was assigned to help more than ten years ago. Shit, I could almost shed a tear at my own resolution, “Doesn’t he like to film videos? I’ll design a specialised tape just for him, so he can film to his heart’s content.”

Yi Da Zhuang’s hand stilled, “What do you mean?”

“I’m just playing my hand according to his tastes. He likes to prey on the pretty, so we’ll set up a honeytrap, and then we’ll bust him in his act and hold that against him, see how he likes it.”

“A honeytrap?” Yi Da Zhuang was even more shocked, “You?!”

“What are you thinking about?” I pointed my chin at the scene beyond the door, “I don’t fit in with his beauty standards, but look over there. That is the epitome of a gentle and weak rabbit in the face of a shark.”

Yi Da Zhuang followed my line of sight and saw Shen Xiao Shi completely unaware of our conversation as he laid on the sofa playing with his phone. It looked as if he was about to lose the game he was playing, as while pressing down on the buttons his expression looked twisted and malevolent, like a Qing Mian Ye Cha come to life again.

He shook at my words, “Xiao Shi… Is he up to the task?”

“Even if he can’t he’ll have to do it.” I pushed the door and entered, approaching Shen Xiao Shi with great geniality as he still laid on the sofa. “Xiao Shi-ah, Feng Ge wants to discuss something with you.”