Don’t be afraid, I will help you catch ‘him.’
///
“If I say, this is the real me, would you still want to be in a relationship with me?”
Qiu Yu’s breath hitched.
In the underground parking lot, vehicles occasionally passed by. Their low beams shimmered like a rippling, dazzling stream of water, driving away the darkness inside the car.
Yet, under such lighting, Chen Cebai’s face appeared even more obscure and indistinct.
He wasn’t lying. In his gaze, there was indeed an extremely terrifying emotion growing wildly.
Qiu Yu’s heart pounded violently.
Not from fear, but from a tingling, overwhelming palpitating sensation—half of her body was paralyzed in this frenzied throbbing.
…She really liked this version of Chen Cebai.
No, she had always liked him.
On ordinary days, he wore a long coat, his shirt buttoned all the way to the top, his demeanor cold, ascetic, and distant—she liked that.
Now, his face was blurred in the dim light, yet his gaze was sharp and condescending—she liked that even more.
She liked everything about him.
She could no longer tell whether he matched her sexual proclivities, or if her proclivities had grown to match him.
At that moment, she saw Chen Cebai lower the driver’s side window and turn on the ventilation system. He took out a cigarette and a lighter from the storage compartment, held the cigarette between his lips, lit it, and took a drag.
Then, he extended the hand holding the cigarette out of the window, turned his head slightly, and exhaled a puff of smoke.
Qiu Yu was stunned—this was the first time she had ever seen Chen Cebai smoke.
In her impression, he had always been an absolutely rational person, possessing an almost terrifying level of self-control. Except for the first time, he even controlled the duration of their intimacy with precise accuracy, never making her feel any discomfort.
She had been with him for three years and had never seen him touch alcohol or cigarettes, nor had she ever seen him stay up late or sleep in.
Yet now, right in front of her, in this cramped car, he was taking a heavy drag of his cigarette.
Even someone as slow as Qiu Yu could sense his loss of control.
His emotions were so unstable that he could no longer regulate his actions.
Qiu Yu thought for a moment, then reached out to hold his other hand.
Chen Cebai froze, turning to look at her. The cigarette still rested between his lips—he didn’t take it out. His face was expressionless, carrying a kind of reckless indifference.
As if he was certain she would reject him, so he no longer cared about anything.
Politeness, rationality, self-control.
All reduced to ashes.
Qiu Yu softly asked, “When did you start smoking?”
“Does it matter?”
“I think it does,” Qiu Yu said. “It feels like I’ve never really known you.”
Chen Cebai turned his head away, took out the cigarette, and exhaled a plume of smoke.
“I’m not addicted to smoking. It’s just that if I don’t put something in my mouth, I’ll want to bite you.”
Qiu Yu: “…Ah?” She blinked her eyelashes, leaned in close to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and rubbed her cheek against his cold and sharp jawline. “Then bite me.”
But Chen Cebai pinched her chin and moved her face away.
After losing control, all his actions became unpredictable.
Qiu Yu could only say whatever came to mind, attempting to use honesty to break through this unsolvable mystery.
“You asked a question, don’t you want to hear my answer?”
Chen Cebai glanced at her while flicking his middle finger against the cigarette ash. His eyes clearly said: Is there even a need to hear it?
Qiu Yu found the emotion in his eyes too piercing, so she couldn’t help but reach out and cover them with her hand.
Chen Cebai closed his eyes. His overly long eyelashes brushed against her palm twice as he raised his hand to grab her wrist.
Qiu Yu threatened, “Don’t move, or I won’t date you anymore!”
She had only said it casually, not expecting that Chen Cebai would actually withdraw his hand.
Qiu Yu couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
Chen Cebai “looked” at her—his eyes were clearly covered by her hand, yet she still felt a subtle sense of being watched.
She even felt as though his gaze, like something tangible, had traced a circle around the corner of her upturned lips.
Qiu Yu dismissed it as an illusion and didn’t dwell on it.
“Chen Cebai, actually, I’ve liked you for a long time.”
Like a clingy little cat, she rested her chin on his shoulder. “But I was afraid you didn’t like me, so I never told you.”
Saying this, she suddenly realized—he had never actually said he liked her. He had only spoken a few nonsensical words, then bit her like a mad dog a few times.
Chen Cebai’s cold breath swept across her pulse. “Keep talking.”
“…I can’t.” Qiu Yu mumbled. “I don’t even know if you like me or not.”
Chen Cebai remained silent.
The word “like” could not express his feelings for her.
But he also couldn’t call it “love.”
Not because his feelings for her weren’t deep enough to be called love, but because love meant protection and devotion. Yet when love reached a certain depth, protection and devotion would become twisted.
An excess of protective desire would turn into distorted possession.
An overwhelming urge to devote would make him want her to accept only his devotion, to survive solely by depending on it.
His love had already become a terrifying poison.
And she was asking him for that poison.
Chen Cebai took another drag of his cigarette.
His eyes were still beneath her palm, yet his movements were completely unrestrained. When he turned his head to exhale the smoke, the white mist, his high-bridged nose, and his sharply defined jawline formed an image filled with intense tension.
Qiu Yu felt a ticklish sensation in her heart. Unable to resist, she softened her voice and coaxed, “I’m asking you a question.”
Chen Cebai originally wanted to deny it. He paused for a few seconds and finally responded in a lukewarm tone:
“What do you think?”
“I think you like me.” Sensing his attitude softening, she immediately gave him a sweet smile and kissed his cheek. “Be my boyfriend. You have no idea how much I like you.”
Perhaps because she had been spoiled since childhood, she knew exactly when to push her advantage and when to adopt a coy and delicate tone to leave his emotions nowhere to hide.
He had set countless restrictions for himself, yet she only needed to take one step forward, and all his defenses would collapse entirely.
Chen Cebai stubbed out the cigarette.
After a brief moment, he threw the unfinished cigarette into the door’s storage compartment, yanked down the hand covering his eyes with one hand, and grasped her chin with the other. With the strong scent of tobacco, he kissed her recklessly.
Qiu Yu’s eyes widened slightly.
Yet Chen Cebai’s kiss was incredibly composed—not a deliberately restrained kind of composure, but the kind that came from having figured everything out.
He had tried his best to suppress his predatory instincts, but the prey had to throw itself into his net.
And not only that, but she had told him—without the slightest reservation—that she had already fallen for him.
It was practically an invitation for him to lock his jaws around her throat as a predator.
Chen Cebai stared into Qiu Yu’s eyes, a cold and terrifying madness faintly flickering beneath his calm exterior.
Qiu Yu shuddered.
She realized, belatedly—wasn’t this the same feeling she had that day?
Back then, she had thought it was impossible for Chen Cebai to look at her with such greed and obsession, so she had dismissed that gaze as a mere illusion.
But… it hadn’t been an illusion?
Before she even realized she wanted an intense love, had Chen Cebai already fallen intensely in love with her?
A swelling sensation surged in her chest.
A bittersweet swelling.
She couldn’t help but lick Chen Cebai’s lower lip and murmured, “You still haven’t answered me. Do you like me or not?”
Now that she knew she was loved, her naturally spoiled nature was magnified to the extreme. She completely ignored his cold expression.
Clearly, he was the one on the offensive, the one hunting, the one aggressively sucking and kissing her lips—yet suddenly, he felt like he had nowhere to retreat.
The one throwing themselves into the net—was it her, or was it him?
Chen Cebai locked his gaze onto Qiu Yu’s eyes, unwavering. A moment later, he pressed his lips against hers and said, “I love you.”
Qiu Yu’s heart trembled.
His voice was deep and cool, carrying a subtle metallic magnetism. The moment it entered her eardrums, it shot straight to the top of her head, and an electric shudder instantly spread through her body.
Noticing her intense reaction to those words, he looked at her and repeated, “I love you.”
The shudder spread all the way to her toes, making Qiu Yu curl them involuntarily.
“I love you, Qiu Yu.”
His gaze was so clear, looking straight at her without any evasion, yet Qiu Yu felt an overwhelming sense of being watched—twice over.
The watcher was still looking at her.
“His” gaze was just as clear, just as direct, just as unwavering as Chen Cebai’s.
Like overlapping shadows, they gazed at her in unison.
For a brief moment, she even had an illusion.
Their eyes met, reaching a silent agreement, as if together, they were using their gazes to outline her figure, stroke by stroke.
Qiu Yu shivered and snapped back to reality, realizing it was indeed just her illusion.
The only one watching her was Chen Cebai.
The watcher’s gaze had long disappeared.
Recalling that suffocating sense of being watched, she couldn’t help but clutch Chen Cebai’s collar tightly and whispered, “…I want to tell you something.”
Chen Cebai slightly pulled away from her lips, his Adam’s apple moving as he swallowed her saliva. “Go ahead.”
The dim car interior concealed the veins bulging on his forehead and the strange, obsessive look in his eyes.
“…I feel like someone is watching me.” Qiu Yu didn’t see Chen Cebai’s near-maddened swallowing motion, but she heard the sound of it. Her ears immediately burned. “I don’t know how ‘he’ is watching me, nor do I know what kind of technology ‘he’ is using, but I can always feel ‘him’ looking at me… Even just now…”
Another car passed by.
Its low beams flashed like lightning, illuminating the dark car interior.
Qiu Yu saw the expression on Chen Cebai’s face vanish—calm, emotionless, becoming somewhat terrifying.
“Don’t be angry.” Qiu Yu kissed his cheek. “Other than peeping, ‘he’ hasn’t done anything extreme for now… Besides, I have you, don’t I? You’re so capable, you’ll definitely catch ‘him’ soon, right?”
The car interior returned to darkness.
A few seconds later, Chen Cebai reached out, pressed the back of her head, and kissed her again.
His kiss was slow, as if he were thinking about something.
In the darkness, faint, splattering-like sounds echoed.
Chen Cebai had no real kissing technique—his kisses were extremely primal, only knowing how to claim her like a beast devouring its prey, occasionally letting out a clear swallowing sound.
But it was precisely this raw, animalistic dominance that left her powerless to resist.
More than ten minutes later, just as her cheeks flushed from a lack of oxygen, he finally whispered in her ear: “Are you afraid of ‘him’?”
Qiu Yu froze for a moment. “Of course, I am.”
Chen Cebai was silent for a few seconds. Then, as if inhaling a cigarette, he took a deep breath at her neck.
Afterward, he straightened up, turned on the overhead light, and pulled a cleaning wipe from the storage compartment. He slowly wiped the lenses of his thin-rimmed glasses and put them back on.
Perhaps because of the lingering sensation from his kiss just now, Qiu Yu inexplicably felt that when he put on his glasses again, he carried a distinct air of a beast in human clothing.
She didn’t think too much about it, only assuming that it was her own sexual proclivities acting up.
At that moment, Chen Cebai started the car engine.
The windows closed, and the car interior once again became a confined, oppressive space. Under the warm glow of the overhead light, it resembled a cozy cage.
Chen Cebai turned the steering wheel slightly and drove toward the surface. “Don’t be afraid, I will help you catch ‘him.’”
He kept his eyes straight ahead, yet from the watcher’s perspective, he saw her reveal a completely unguarded smile.
“Okay,” she said.