Chapter Text
It was a surprisingly bright starry night, the chilly air mingled with trash bins’ smell, created a weirdly comfortable atmosphere for She Li to fade in the dark alley he was lying at. His swollen cheek and wounded body clearly showed how badly he was beaten. She Li kept starring to the sky without thinking much, he only felt a bit of pain but his body didn’t move as he wanted, resting was the only choice in the current situation, ‘till his underlings found him.
She Li knew who gonna pay for this, tomorrow would be a busy day, his cousin’s nightclub gained more enemies meant he had more fights. It was never be easy to be a famous discotheque in this busy and competitive city, especially when his brother wanted to control all gangs and trades inside his dance floor. No pain no gain, She Li liked this, he yearned for the satisfaction of seeing how those ugly ignogrant expressions changed to be horrified ones. How lovely they could be.
The voice of a street singer close by sometimes went to She Li’s ears, he assumed it was a love song based on the lyrics. She Li moved his fingers and sneered, the definition of love was so laughable, the notion was so dump that he rarely thought about it. She Li closed his eyes, maybe a short sleep could provide him a bit of energy to stand up on his own, his minds blurred and all noise around him started to disappear.
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She Li was walking in his dream,‘It’s so unusual to know I am in my own dream, no matter how many times I’ve been through it’, he talked to himself. Everything around him was the same as normal, same streets, polluted vehicles, same crowd, running idiots and Redhead, right on the corner, slept safe and sound on the bench in front of the park he always walked by everyday.
She Li suddenly felt tired and indecisive, this scenerio already repeated too many times. He did whatever he could, he punched Redhead, he stabbed Redhead, he even strangled Redhead and there was no response. Whatever he did in this stupid dream, Redhead just continued his sleep, his body moved with his punch but his expression never changed, his eyes never opened and when there was no breath, the whole world around She Li just simply shattered. She Li even dragged Redhead to the river nearby and throw him in, still, nothing happened. Redhead sank into the river and She Li’s broken world awaked him. He did not know what to do now, even if he ignored Redhead and went to another street, at the end, Redhead and the park were always there. His brain refused to think after many attempts, She Li sat on the bench, right next to Redhead’s head.
‘Could I seelp inside a dream?’ She Li wondered, his eyes wandering around Redhead and saw the movement of Redhead’s chest, ready for another abuse. ‘Today was not a day’, She Li was certain, the bench stretched itself after his thinking, enough space for She Li to lie down and strangely, he did. His head touch Redhead’s hair, there was no smell, just Redhead and him, on a bench in the park, where all sound were so far away.
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The last time She Li met Redhead was a few years ago and it was chaotic. It was not nice at all being confined into a room with an idiot-love-to-play-hero theft like He Tian, both man were bound and gagged as if they were high risk criminals. That should be in the future, not at that moment, life so sucked.
The psychopath who kipnapped them put them on the chairs and the projector kept showing Redhead videos on the opposite wall. Tons of video in fact. That was the first time She Li witnessed Redhead’s smile, the first time he saw Redhead’s naked body and his daily life. There were around 10 cameras installed in Redhead’s room and he could view Redhead’s every single action. The first video was recorded from a dog’s collar, Redhead’s face changed from being grumpy into soft and when the dog licked his cheek a few time, Redhead smiled, then She Li’s inside came to silence. He didn’t want to see Redhead happy, that was for sure, his heart felt so painful and his instinct screamed to him to shut his eyes. And he did.
She Li was forced to opend his eyes again to watch a peaceful sleeping face of Redhead on the screen. As if the psychopath cared about She Li and He Tian so much, the camera angle was often changed to refresh their moods, it was like watching a documentary film, not a monitoring one.
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Ah, how much She Li desired to crush the pyschopath’s skull was undescribable.
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The chairs She Li and He Tian sat on was firmly nailed into the floor and considering how they were constrained, it was impossible to escape from the chair, not mentioning the thick steel entrance door. The video showed Redhead’s bath scene, his Redhead naked body under hot water and from the corner of his eye, She Li saw He Tian kept shouting with the cloth in his mouth, his whole body shaked and he tried to break the rope with all of his strength, his blood started to dye the brown rope into red until his stomach was cruelly hit by a big baseball bat. This was the only time She Li didn’t like looking at He Tian being mute, and he thought the draining of blood from his wrists maybe much more than he expected as he felt his hands so wet. Not feeling much pain became a torture to him this time, he needed distraction and this foolish sickness didn’t help at all.
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He Tian’s brother was a stupid d*ck and his enemy was an a**hole. The psychopath lost his territory and took revenge on He Tian instead. So why the f*ck he was here with this f*cking idiot? Why was he trapped in this room watching Redhead videos? Why f*cking why? If the psychopath wanted to destroy He Tian’s mentality why he was dragged in? They were arch-enemy, He Tian was a thelf, stole Redhead away from him. She Li cursed and cursed. He hated this helplessness, he not supposed to feel it. And Redhead was supposed to be mocked and humiliated by She Li only, not by those trash guards. He would kill them, for real, and put all the blame on He Tian, whether his brother could wipe his a** or not, it wasn’t She Li’s problem.
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After 4 days, She Li estimated, Redhead was put in the room with them, handcuffed and completely shocked to see He Tian and She Li there. Their mouths still stucked, He Tian’s body shaked angrily, She Li had to give him a mark for his energy, they were both nearly exausted. The pyschopath madly laughed and asked Redhead to choose one of them, the chosen one would be free and he would shoot the another. Redhead stood dead, his eyes filled with terror. The psychopath kept laughing like he was watching the best comedy ever, nice play indeed. If Redhead chose He Tian, he would be haunted by She Li for the rest of his life and so was He Tian, and the most amazing fact was that he couldn’t do anything about it.
If Redhead chose She Li, no way Redhead would do it, She Li immediately dismissed the idea.
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‘If this was the end, it was not too bad’, imagining how Redhead would be trapped with him in his memory forever, She Li grinned and waited for his moment. But Redhead stood there, quietly cried and shaked his head, he said he wouldn’t choose. And She Li felt somewhere in his chest, a depressed strange feeling was born.
The psychopath’s underlings swung their arms, blood covered She Li’ eyes, same for He Tian, same for Redhead, still no choice was voiced. Redhead was stupid as always, She Li muttered. Hours passed by, the psychopath finally ran out of patience, he ordered to kill both Redhead and She Li, left He Tian alive in the room for starving, or for getting help from his brother and lived the rest of his life with anger and regret. Suddenly there was a huge explosion in the hallway, He Tian’s brother came much quicker than the psychopath’s plan. He and his underlings rapidly opened the door, then viciously turned back and pointed his gun on She Li first. The moment when She Li saw Redhead cover him with his body, his heart was received a deep stab to its core.
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Redhead’s last sentence was to He Tian, and She Li has never ever realized there would be a day he’d rather die than hear the three words ‘I love you’.
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She Li woke up in the hospital, that stupid d*ckhead brother He came just on time. She Li turned to be a mummy and stayed there more than half of a year to recover. He didn’t acccept any compensation from the He family, only sent Redhead a message ‘You paid your debt’ and left. She Li spent the next few years to hunt down the psychopath and his underlings till the last one. Sometimes He Tian and his brother were quicker, sometimes he was faster, they all raced to revenge.
She Li has never met Redhead since then. His instinct told him so and he followed. By doing that, he successfully stopped the strange feeling in his chest to grow. Curiousity killed the cat and She Li comprehended that more than any one.
He still saw Redhead in his dream and the dream was an unescaped loop. But weirdly, deep down She Li knew he did not hate it at all.
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She Li opened his eyes, Redhead was still sleeping, this time his hand touched She Li’s head and he just let it be. The whole world turned to be a vast ocean, only the bench, Redhead and She Li existed in it. And that was ok, She Li thought, he would take a nap and wake up to do his job. His dream was his and he could not care less about others.