GBT Chapter 37
by VolareAll of this was for the sake of his health.
Relatively speaking, Qi Yi Liao hadn’t made him suffer in this regard.
As Jiao Bai thought this, the elevator doors opened, the bed getting stuck in the doorway, accompanied by Qi Yi Liao’s voice: “Come down.”
Jiao Bai’s eyes widened.
Qi Yi Liao, with both hands propped on the headboard, looked down at him: “You’ve been lying down all the way; it’s time to get up and move around. If you lie down too much,” Qi Yi Liao straightened his pajama collar, “you won’t be able to get up.”
“…I just didn’t react in time.” Jiao Bai slowly got up. “Thank you, Chairman Qi, for taking such good care of me.”
Qi Yi Liao walked out of the elevator on his own: “Then be good.”
Jiao Bai, supporting himself on the bed rail, got out of bed. The Qi family’s secrets, the root of Qi Yi Liao’s perversion, were all here. He first glanced at the white cat, confirming that there was nothing unusual, and then walked out of the elevator.
What came into view was…
A Buddhist shrine.
It wasn’t magnificent and only occupied a small area, surrounded by large empty spaces and pale white walls.
This created a very strange feeling visually.
Jiao Bai’s footsteps stopped in front of the elevator, not rashly following Qi Yi Liao.
The offering table held an empty incense burner, clean and without any incense sticks.
Jiao Bai twitched his nose; he didn’t smell even a trace of incense here.
A Buddhist shrine was set up, but no incense was burned or offerings made.
It seemed to be used as a decoration.
Jiao Bai quickly scanned the shrine, but whether it was the patterns on the offering table, the sculptures on the roof of the shrine, or the materials used for the prayer cushions, everything was exquisite and valuable.
“This is where my mother used to chant sutras when she was alive.” Qi Yi Liao stood in the center of the shrine, bowing to a Buddha statue in the middle. “She didn’t like any incense, but she believed in Buddhism. I’ve kept the shrine, preserving it as it was, as a memento.”
“Oh, oh, I see.” Jiao Bai replied absently. This was his first time entering a private shrine in both lifetimes, and he felt uncomfortable. He found the rows of small Buddha statues lined up, illuminated by the lights, rather eerie.
Xiao Ji and Jiang Yan also came here, right? He wondered what they felt and what they did.
Jiao Bai rubbed his sweaty nape: “What did Chairman Qi mean by asking me to help?”
Qi Yi Liao: “No rush.”
Jiao Bai: “…”
Regarding Qi Yi Liao’s background and upbringing, the comic didn’t mention anything. Now, Jiao Bai was improvising completely.
Qi Yi Liao beckoned: “Come here.”
Jiao Bai moved closer.
Qi Yi Liao glanced at his neck, his eyes filled with doubt and concern: “Why are you sweating so much?”
Jiao Bai was not only sweating a lot; his heart was also racing.
Hurry up, you old pervert, whether it’s a knife or a sword, come deal with me quickly so I can die early and be reborn.
Seeing that Qi Yi Liao seemed to be planning to take a bath and change clothes before messing with him, Jiao Bai couldn’t wait and used his “looking for death” skill: “I’m sleepy; I just want to go downstairs and sleep early.”
The smile in Qi Yi Liao’s eyes vanished instantly. He said in a light voice: “Xiao Bai’s sleepy? Then okay, let’s be quick.”
Jiao Bai’s heart pounded.
Qi Yi Liao’s fetish was voice control. When Xiao Ji made a mistake, he suffered injuries on his back, but he could still walk, move, and run when he went downstairs, so it didn’t seem too terrible.
Jiang Yan said that as long as you didn’t make a mistake, you wouldn’t be punished.
This meant that although Qi Yi Liao was perverted, he wasn’t completely insane and was still within controllable limits.
Jiao Bai closed his eyes, calmed down. His voice was average, so he probably couldn’t excite Qi Yi Liao, but he still had the Great Compassion Mantra. If worse came to worst, he would pretend to be possessed and recite it.
“Actually, it’s not a very complicated matter, just reading a few pages of a book here,” Qi Yi Liao smiled and looked at Jiao Bai kindly. “Xiao Bai can do this, right?”
“Why do I have to read here…” Before Jiao Bai could finish speaking, the book was handed to him.
“Start from page thirty-two.” Qi Yi Liao sat on the chair beside the offering table, crossed his legs, and raised his chin at him, looking relaxed and composed.
Jiao Bai flipped a page and nearly exploded on the spot. It was all in English, a handwritten copy!
“Chairman Qi, there are uncommon words here; I don’t know them.” Jiao Bai was like a student called upon to answer a question. He chose a sincere approach to see if it would work, and if not, he would switch tactics.
“It doesn’t matter,” Qi Yi Liao said gently. “Try reading it?”
Jiao Bai forced a smile: “Okay, then.”
So, the handsome, ugly, fat, and thin companions around Qi Yi Liao were used to read books for him.
Did he want to be a teacher, but couldn’t because he had to bear the survival of his family, leading to a distorted obsession?
In any case, tonight was just about reading. This was much better than Jiao Bai had imagined.
Suddenly, the hem of Jiao Bai’s pajamas felt cool, and a chill crawled up his waistline. He shivered and looked down, dumbfounded.
Qi Yi Liao was holding a ruler in his hand, one end in his palm, the other on Jiao Bai’s waist, his eyebrows filled with compelling displeasure.
“Xiao Bai, you’re too distracted.”
Sweat broke out on Jiao Bai’s back. It wasn’t a small leather whip or burning candles, but a ruler. Not bad, this was very much like Teacher Qi.
Playing some kind of role-playing game, was he?!
“Chairman Qi, why are you making it seem like we’re in class?” Jiao Bai asked, acting naive and innocent.
Qi Yi Liao propped his head up, his smile amiable, his eyes scarlet.
Jiao Bai looked at him for a few seconds, his hairs standing on end, unable to discern anything. He had to read, and he couldn’t refuse.
However, it was a handwritten copy, and it was an antique from who knew how many years ago, written in a child’s handwriting, small and cramped, with many places unclear.
Heh.
Jiao Bai started reading from the first line of page thirty-two.
“erinaceous.” Qi Yi Liao corrected, his tone magnetic, his eyes full of encouragement.
Jiao Bai repeated it.
Qi Yi Liao: “Wrong.”
Jiao Bai felt the ruler pressing against his waist, and he quickly said: “I’ll try again!”
Qi Yi Liao nodded, comforting him: “Don’t be nervous; it doesn’t matter if you’re wrong once.”
Jiao Bai couldn’t smile.
That meant he would be reprimanded if he was wrong twice.
Jiao Bai tried to read the word again.
Qi Yi Liao didn’t say anything.
Jiao Bai continued reading, but he got stuck after a while.
There were really too many uncommon words. There were a dozen or so just on page thirty-two, and a high school student’s vocabulary was simply not enough.
Jiao Bai had read the books Jiang Yan had given him while he was at Shang Ming Yuan, but he hadn’t had time to memorize them because Shen Ji was messing things up.
Jiao Bai suddenly noticed that Qi Yi Liao was staring at him, unblinking, expressionless, his lips pursed straight. He really looked like a disappointed parent.
Even without getting close, he could see the tense corners of his forehead, and the hand holding the ruler was trembling as he tried his best to restrain himself, as if he might lash out at any moment.
“Chairman Qi, I’ve tried, but I can’t do it.” Jiao Bai’s soles were weak, and he said apologetically, “My abilities are very limited; I can’t help you.”
Qi Yi Liao murmured: “You can’t?”
He tapped his forehead twice, leaned back, looked at the sculptures overhead, and laughed strangely: “You can’t?”
Although he was smiling, his face was twitching nervously.
Jiao Bai quickly grabbed the ruler through his pajamas: “I suddenly feel like I can do it again!”
Qi Yi Liao looked at him for a moment with an unchanging smile: “Your attention can’t be concentrated, you can’t calm down, how can you possibly read it?”
As he said that, Qi Yi Liao pulled the chair next to him closer: “Read while sitting.”
Jiao Bai sat down, holding the book.
What was this all about? In the middle of the night, reading a handwritten English copy in a Buddhist shrine? This was an absurd lecture.
Jiao Bai was really scared, and he became uncharacteristically serious. His slightly rounded chin pressed against his pajama collar, his dark and thick eyelashes drooping down, and words popped out from his pale lips one by one.
Qi Yi Liao pulled out the ruler and casually stroked the end that had touched the young man’s waistline between his fingers.
The reader’s pronunciation was too inaccurate, and it was also very awkward, unpleasant, and jarring.
But there were emotional fluctuations, floating densely between the words and sentences.
Qi Yi Liao’s breathing became imperceptibly rougher, and the muscles in his legs under his long pants twitched unnaturally. His brow furrowed slightly, and after a few seconds, it tightened even more. The Adam’s apple in his shirt collar bobbed rapidly.
He seemed to be enduring some extreme, inescapable pain.
Jiao Bai was focused on the book. When he encountered an uncommon word, he struggled for a long time and couldn’t get it out, but the ruler that he thought would fall didn’t move.
Qi Yi Liao lowered his head, bent over, closed his eyes, and remained motionless.
The white cat closed its eyes.
A thin wire was wrapped around its bloody and blurred neck, but its expression was peaceful.
It looked like a “baby sleeping.”
Jiao Bai: “…”
What was going on? Jiao Bai didn’t have time to think about it carefully, and it wasn’t a good time to explore the third floor. He wanted to leave.
But as soon as he had the thought, Qi Yi Liao, who was sitting across from him, opened his eyes, his voice filled with a strange hoarseness: “Why did you stop?”
The ruler drew a hard line in the air, covered with baleful aura.
It was like a venomous snake opening its mouth towards Jiao Bai.
Jiao Bai wanted to dodge, but he didn’t move, fearing that he would injure his ribs. He subconsciously closed his eyes, but the expected pain didn’t come.
After a suffocating second or two, Jiao Bai opened a small slit in his eyelids, and what came into view was a gray-shirted arm.
Qi Yi Liao had used his arm to block the ruler when he was about to strike him.
He had taken the blow himself.
Jiao Bai stared at him blankly.
“If you don’t understand something, you can call me.” Qi Yi Liao’s lips were pale, and there was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead. The arm that had blocked the ruler was trembling, and a long, dark watermark seeped through the outer shirt, with a hint of blood.
He stood up, the long ruler dragging a short distance on the ground, and suddenly walked in front of Jiao Bai, leaning close with one hand propped on the back of the chair. He spoke slowly, his breath cold and fishy, but also hot and restless, “Instead of being lazy.”
Qi Yi Liao’s eyes were filled with twisted helplessness and anger.
But the white cat was crying at Jiao Bai.
Jiao Bai blinked after a long while. From Qi Yi Liao’s reaction, he could tell how severe the blow had been. If he had been hit, no matter where, his skin would have been torn open.
He couldn’t understand why Qi Yi Liao had blocked it, hitting himself.
Jiao Bai touched the book in his hand. The old pervert was about to lose control. He explained: “It’s not that I don’t want to read; it’s that my voice is hoarse.”
“Hoarse?” Qi Yi Liao leaned forward. “Let me see.”
Jiao Bai didn’t open his mouth.
Qi Yi Liao frowned: “Open your mouth.”
Jiao Bai didn’t cooperate. He didn’t doubt for a moment that as soon as he opened his mouth, either the ruler would come in, or Qi Yi Liao’s fingers.
“Xiao Bai, if it were Old Shen, he would pinch your face, forcing you to open your jaws. If you couldn’t open them, he would directly dislocate your chin. I don’t like that kind of violent behavior.”
Qi Yi Liao lightly raised and lowered the ruler in his hand, tapping it on Jiao Bai’s throat, his words filled with difficulty. “So, cooperate a little; don’t make me do things I don’t like.”
Jiao Bai put on the slippers he had put on backwards: “If I cooperate, you won’t hit me with the ruler?”
“Silly child.”
Qi Yi Liao got up, pressed his palm on the top of his head, rubbed it twice, his gaze falling on the Buddha statues, his eyes filled with indifference, disgust, and a wave of nausea in his stomach.
The next moment, he laughed again: “Be good.”