The man walked toward Wen Ruyu, the sound of his footsteps echoing through the empty corridor.

"Tap."

"Tap."

"Tap."

The footsteps were neither light nor heavy, yet they carried an indescribable pressure, as if every step landed directly on a person's heart.

And also on the tip of Wen Ruyu's heart.

His slender body trembled uncontrollably. Instinctively he shrank back, his back pressing tightly against the cold wall, as if that might give him even the slightest sense of safety.

The man pulled the knife out of the wall. Then he stopped in front of Wen Ruyu and looked down at him from above, his tall shadow completely enveloping Wen Ruyu.

He stood extremely close now, only a few centimeters away. The smell of blood from his body rushed straight toward Wen Ruyu, making his stomach churn uncontrollably.

Wen Ruyu instinctively turned his head aside.

But the moment he turned, the man suddenly crouched down and reached out, grabbing his chin. The grip was so strong it made his jaw ache as the hand forcibly turned his face back.

"Why are you hiding?"

The man crouched in front of him. There was a faint, careless smile in his lowered voice as his fingertip rubbed slowly against Wen Ruyu's pale, delicate chin.

"Weren't you trying to run just now?"

"Why did you stop running?"

Wen Ruyu's lips trembled slightly. He opened his mouth, but he could not form a complete sentence.

When a person is in extreme fear, no sound can come out.

His beautiful eyes were wet, filled with tears and terror. His long eyelashes trembled violently, making his face look even more beautiful and pitiful.

Perhaps there were too many tears gathered in his eyes. Even though he did not blink, they still slipped down uncontrollably, landing right on the back of the man's hand.

The tear was warm yet cool.

When it fell onto the skin, it felt like a feather scratching deep into the heart, giving birth to countless dark thoughts.

The man's movement paused.

He lowered his head and looked at the tear. Then he raised his eyes to the boy in front of him, his gaze darkening slightly.

Sure enough...

When he cried...

He looked even better.

The man's hand tightened slightly around Wen Ruyu's chin, forcing him to raise his head and expose his slender, fragile neck.

His gaze wandered slowly across Wen Ruyu's face, from the reddened corners of his eyes to his trembling thin lips, as though he were examining something that already belonged to him.

After a long moment, the man suddenly spoke. His tone was light and casual, revealing no emotion.

"Your album is full of pictures of that man on the basketball court."

"You like him that much?"

"So much that you sneak over every day to secretly take photos of him?"

Hearing this, Wen Ruyu instinctively tried to shake his head. But because his chin was trapped in the man's grip, he could only speak through tears, stammering.

"I... I'm not..."

"I was just..."

"Just what?" the man interrupted.

His gaze fell onto Wen Ruyu's slightly parted lips. His thumb slowly brushed across them, and in the next moment he felt the person beneath his hand tremble.

The man let out a low laugh.

There was a trace of madness and perversion in that laughter.

"It doesn't matter."

As he spoke, he lifted his hand and gently wiped away the tears on Wen Ruyu's face. The movement unexpectedly carried a strange kind of tenderness.

"In a few days, you won't need to secretly photograph him anymore."

What did he mean by that?

What did he mean by not needing to secretly photograph him in a few days?

A chill ran through Wen Ruyu's heart.

An ominous feeling rose inside him.

But before he could react, something was suddenly placed into his hand.

He felt the coldness in his palm and instinctively lowered his head, confusion still lingering in his tear filled eyes.

It was...

The bloodstained knife.

Perhaps noticing that Wen Ruyu had not reacted yet, and seeing the confusion in his eyes, the man bared his teeth in a grin.

"The murder weapon."

"Now your fingerprints are on it."

Wen Ruyu: "...?"

The smile on the man's face grew wider and wider.

He grabbed Wen Ruyu's wrist and yanked it hard to the side.

Wen Ruyu had already been sitting on the ground. With that sudden pull, his body stumbled forward and he fell straight into the man's arms.

"Mm..."

The tip of his nose slammed hard into the man's chest. A sharp pain shot through it and he let out a soft cry. Reflexive tears slid down again.

Before he could react, an arm wrapped tightly around his waist.

Then a large cold hand covered his own, forcing him to grip the bloodstained fruit knife.

And in the next second, the man drove his hand downward toward the corpse lying nearby.

"Shlk."

The sound of the blade stabbing into flesh rang sharply through the empty corridor.

Wen Ruyu's pupils shrank.

All the blood in his body seemed to freeze instantly.

Three seconds later, he slowly lowered his head in stiff disbelief.

Right now the knife was in his hand.

Under the man's control, it had been driven deep into the corpse on the ground.

The corpse had not been dead for long.

It had not completely cooled yet, and the blood had not fully coagulated.

After that stab, warm, thick blood began flowing out again, spreading slowly across the floor.

He had not killed the person.

But now the hand holding the knife was his.

The blade buried in the corpse was also his.

Anyone who saw this scene would believe he was the murderer.

The man looked down at the boy in his arms, whose eyes were wide open, filled with terror and disbelief.

A smile of extreme perversity curved across his lips.

He leaned down close to Wen Ruyu's ear.

His warm breath brushed across Wen Ruyu's reddened ear, filled with triumphant pleasure as he spoke word by word.

"Now."

"You are my accomplice."

Wen Ruyu's body was stiff with shock.

He tried to struggle free from the man's grip, but the man's strength far exceeded his. All he could do was watch helplessly as the bloodstained knife was slowly pulled out of the corpse.

As the blade slid free, it dragged out a string of blood beads that dripped down onto his clothes, staining his hoodie red.

The man gave Wen Ruyu no time to process anything.

He forcibly turned his head again. Then he grabbed Wen Ruyu's other empty hand and bent his fingers apart into a V sign.

His tone was patient, almost instructive.

"Like this."

"Spread your fingers a little."

"Now like this."

"Raise it higher."

At this moment Wen Ruyu had no strength left.

His body trembled as he allowed the man to manipulate him like a beautiful doll.

One hand was forced into the V sign and raised stiffly in the air.

The other held the bloodstained knife.

Together with the corpse on the ground, the scene created a bizarre and horrifying picture.

Once Wen Ruyu was posed exactly how he wanted, the man finally stepped back a little.

He took his phone out of his pocket and pointed the camera at Wen Ruyu.

"Come on."

"Look at the camera."

His tone was light and casual, even cheerful.

As if he were simply taking an ordinary photo.

Click.

The moment was frozen in the phone's camera.

In the image, Wen Ruyu sat collapsed on the cold concrete floor.

His slender figure looked fragile and unstable under the dim lighting.

Several drops of blood stained his loose hoodie, and the knife in his hand was still dripping.

Warm liquid slid down the blade and spread into small blood blossoms on the ground, merging with the dark red pool spreading from beneath the corpse.

His other hand had been forced into a V sign and hung stiffly in the air, forming a grotesque contrast with the bloody scene.

His overly beautiful face had completely lost its color.

The corners of his eyes were red. His long eyelashes hung damp with tears.

His eyes were filled with terror and helplessness.

Against the corpse on the ground, the contrast created a strange and dangerous beauty.

It was the contrast between pure beauty and extreme evil.

A suffocating kind of attraction.

Strange.

Dazzling.

Beautiful enough to shake the soul.

But the man still seemed unsatisfied.

He lifted his eyes and looked at Wen Ruyu, whose face had turned pale.

His voice was cheerful, coaxing, like someone teasing a beloved toy.

"Smile for me."

Chapter 12

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