Will Picking Up Men Get Me Killed? - Chapter 2

Just then, lines of text floated before my eyes.

They glowed faintly, translucent, rolling past one after another like comments scrolling across a phone screen.

I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I blinked. They stayed.

【Oh my god, he doesn’t like any of this. That Beta forced him into it…】

I froze.

Another line appeared.

【Look how red his eyes are! He’s so hurt! An S-rank Alpha being made to play dog for a Beta. His heart must be bleeding!】

My hand stilled. The leash was still hooked around my finger, but I stopped tugging it.

A third line followed.

【He pretends to be asleep every night. After that Beta drops off, he lies there crying with his eyes open. He’s nearly cried himself blind.】

My hand began to shake.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth lines rushed in together.

【He’s not some poor Alpha! He’s the young master of the Zhou family in the capital, a top-tier S-rank!】

【Once he gets his memory back, the first thing he’ll do is throw that pervert Beta into a pool of hungry crocodiles!】

【Look at the Beta’s face. Hilarious. He has no idea his days are numbered.】

【His fiancé Lu Qingyan is coming to collect him soon. A beautiful Omega from a family every bit as good as his. Who does this Beta think he is?】

I let go of the leash at once.

I looked down at him. He gazed up at me, eyes still red but expression gentle, that faint curve still on his lips. The cloth around his wrists had left a light red mark. He hadn’t struggled. He just lay there quietly.

I scrambled off him and knelt on the bed, fumbling to untie his wrists. The bow was loose, but my fingers shook so badly I had to pick at it several times before it came free. The end of the cloth snapped away and fell to the floor.

He looked startled. His hands dropped; his knuckles had gone pale. They were clearly numb.

Without looking at his face, I reached for the leash around his neck. The leather loop caught against his Adam’s apple. My hands shook so much I had to press the clasp several times before it opened.

Click.

The loop loosened. I took it off and gripped it in my hand.

“Tonight…” My voice trembled. I took a deep breath to steady it. “Tonight, you sleep by yourself.”

I turned to leave.

“Shen Du.”

His voice came from behind me. It was no longer soft or husky. It was deep, as if he were holding something down.

I didn’t turn back.

“Did I do something wrong? Or do you want to try something else?”

The question was so careful that I went rigid beside the bed.

More comments drifted past.

【See? There he goes, pretending again. He doesn’t care about this Beta. He’s only sticking around because he has nowhere else to go.】

【Really? It kind of looks as if he actually likes the Beta.】

【Likes him? Then throws him to the crocodiles later? What a joke.】

I tightened my grip on the leash.

I didn’t know which of those comments was true. But I no longer dared turn around.

“Shen Du,” he called again.

This time his voice had changed, as if he’d become certain of something—or was testing it.

I couldn’t help looking back.

He sat on the bed, the red marks still on his wrists and the impression of the leather loop still on his neck. His head was tilted slightly.

It wasn’t his left ear he had turned toward me.

It was his right.

His right ear was deaf. He was facing me with the ear that couldn’t hear.

His eyes were impossibly dark—not meekly dark, not hurt. Dark like a hunter drawing in his claws and slowly narrowing his eyes.

He watched my lips with a concentration that looked like lip-reading. Then he spoke, very, very softly.

“What did you…”

“…just say?”

A pause. A long one.

“I didn’t hear you.”

He was lying. I’d spoken toward his left ear. That ear worked fine. He’d heard me. He’d heard everything.

Yet now he’d turned his right ear toward me.

He was handsome and strong, inventive and warm all over. I liked him, even with his deaf right ear.

But the comments said he would throw me to the crocodiles. I was terrified.

I opened the door and walked out.