That was the scene Gu Huaizhi found when he opened the door.
On the hospital bed, Yan Yu sat with his head lowered, slightly curling black hair obscuring his eyes. Fever flushed his face, making the dark bruise on his chin all the more alarming.
He murmured to himself through lips cracked with dehydration, apparently oblivious to the pain.
He looked quiet and compliant.
Gu Huaizhi watched him with suspicion, interpreting even the most ordinary movements through his own prejudices.
Yan Yu took another sip of water. Only when he raised his head did he notice the man in the doorway.
His body remembered the previous night and recoiled.
The glass slipped from his hand onto the blanket, quickly soaking a patch of it.
“You...”
Surprise, alarm, humiliation, fear: emotion after emotion crossed his eyes. Finally, he forced his voice to work, though it shook noticeably.
“Did you bring me to the hospital?”
Afraid of him?
Gu Huaizhi hadn't missed the instinctive retreat. He raised an eyebrow without answering, intending to see how long Yan Yu could keep up what he assumed was an act.
Receiving no response, Yan Yu took the silence to mean the man didn't want to speak to him after last night.
He didn't want to see Gu Huaizhi either.
“I'm sorry about last night. But thank you for bringing me here. As for the medical fees—”
Before he could finish, Gu Huaizhi stepped forward and seized his chin.
The fingers pressed directly onto the bruises. Tears sprang to Yan Yu's eyes. He pushed at the hand, anger flashing across his face.
“Let go!”
But he was ill, and Gu Huaizhi wasn't. He couldn't shift that grip at all.
Gu Huaizhi watched him struggle. Apparently, pushing was the only defense he knew; he'd done the same the night before.
It gave Gu Huaizhi the ugly sense that he was tormenting a small, helpless creature.
His original plan to ruin Yan Yu financially and make his life unbearable began to change.
[Gu Huaizhi's Corruption -2. Current Corruption: 98.]
“You come to my room, and then you think you can run?” He forced Yan Yu to look at him.
“I wasn't trying to get into your bed.”
Humiliation crossed Yan Yu's face.
[Yan Yu: Textbook domineering-CEO dialogue. Don't copy him, System.]
[System: Okay!]
Before he'd gone to Lanyu, the bar owner had warned him that its customers were either wealthy or powerful. Plenty of servers hoped to attach themselves to one and rise overnight.
The warning had been clear: those people weren't anyone ordinary workers could afford to offend.
Some might soar into a better life. Far more disappeared without anyone knowing where their bones were buried.
He'd never intended to curry favor with the rich. He only wanted wages and drinking tips to pay Grandma Director's medical expenses.
His memories of the previous night were blurred, but he knew he'd made no such advance.
They'd offered him ten thousand a glass. He'd only wanted to earn more.
He'd drunk to earn his own tips. He didn't see what he'd done wrong, or understand how it had turned into this.
To wake after an assault and then be accused of engineering it—anyone would be angry.
A sudden burst of strength let him shove the hand away. His vision darkened, but he spoke through his pallor.
“You haven't even established who entered whose room!”
“The owner and Lanyu gave me permission to rest there. Sir, reaching a conclusion before you've checked the facts is hardly objective.”
“You're spreading lies about me. I can call the police!”
Gu Huaizhi hadn't expected him to have enough strength to resist and was caught off guard by the shove.
At his words, however, he laughed as though he'd heard a joke.
“Everyone at Lanyu knows the first suite on the top floor is mine.”
Leaning toward Yan Yu, who was breathing hard, he sneered. “The owner's permission? Strange. I don't remember giving it.”
“You say Lanyu approved it. Who exactly? What was their position?”
Yan Yu retorted, “You say you're the owner. How do you prove it?”
Then something occurred to him, and his face drained.
Last night, he'd been barely coherent with drink. When the other person summoned a server to take him to Suite One, he'd initially refused.
Seeing his disbelief, that person had shown him a purchase record and messages exchanged with a contact labeled Lanyu.
They'd also produced a key card. He'd believed them.
When he hesitated, they'd added that they had business elsewhere and wouldn't be staying at the club.
He'd felt so unwell from drinking that he'd muddled along upstairs after the server.
Watching the realization dawn, Gu Huaizhi stepped back and studied his pale face with satisfaction.
Then he tossed down a key card. “There's my proof. Where's yours?”
Yan Yu looked at it. The elaborate design was nothing like the blank card he'd seen the night before. Even a fool could tell which was genuine.
He grew paler still.
“If you can give me a proper explanation, I might let you go...”
Hope lit Yan Yu's eyes. He hurried to answer.
“Lanyu has cameras. I can prove I'm telling the truth!”
“Last night wasn't something I planned. What happened with you... it wasn't my choice. I'm a victim too!”
Gu Huaizhi smiled at his naïveté. Just as Yan Yu thought the matter might finally be resolved, the cold voice returned.
“Lanyu doesn't hand its security footage to just anyone. I can obtain it, of course. But what would that have to do with you?”
“I said you could explain it. Not that I could investigate it.” He enunciated every word.
The hope that had just kindled went out again.
He remembered the person's face, but he didn't know their identity.
What good was remembering a face? He couldn't draw it. He certainly couldn't find the person on his own.
And if he accepted help, Gu Huaizhi would probably twist his words again and say that didn't count.
As though remembering something, Gu Huaizhi took a cufflink from his pocket.
Yan Yu's gaze shifted toward it instinctively.
“Pretty, isn't it?”
The jeweled cufflink moved deftly between his fingers, scattering brilliant light.
Unsure of his mood, Yan Yu hesitantly nodded.
“Of course. You wouldn't have stolen it otherwise.”
Gu Huaizhi fastened it to his shirt. The smile never reached his eyes.
Yan Yu looked up in astonishment, his eyes widening.
[System: Host! I finally understand why his Corruption maxed out! You kept me in the dark! >_<]
[But Gu Huaizhi is pretty stupid. He walked straight into your trap. Hee-hee!]
[Yan Yu's mouth twitched: Yes. A very silly little System.]
[System: Did my host just insult me? o_o]