BPDSB Chapter 3:”Are you here to laugh at me too?”

Just a second ago, Xu Xiliu had been carefully tending to the wounds on the man’s hand, using tweezers to pick out shards of glass embedded deep in the flesh of his palm at some unknown time. After much effort, he finally removed them and managed to stop the bleeding. But just as he was about to begin bandaging, the man’s hand suddenly twitched, as if about to close. Xu Xiliu hurriedly pressed it down with force.

He was about to start wrapping it up. There was no way he was going to let his hard work go to waste.

After holding it in place, Xu Xiliu realized that the protagonist gong seemed to have regained consciousness. He leaned over to check, intending to ask how the patient was feeling, but before he could even open his mouth, the man suddenly and unexpectedly called him “Mom.”

In that moment, Xu Xiliu felt like his brain had shriveled up.

Was it his appearance that seemed too feminine, or was the aura of maternal warmth around him just too strong, that it actually made the protagonist gong feel like he was his mother?

This was absolutely absurd.

Even thinking about it again, Xu Xiliu still found it unbelievable.

But looking at the dazed and not fully conscious gaze of the protagonist gong, he could only swallow his frustration. What was the point of arguing with a patient?

Xu Xiliu maintained a smile and even cautiously glanced toward the door, wanting to see if the housekeeper outside had heard that earth-shattering cry from the protagonist gong. If he had, that would truly be mortifying.

Fortunately, the doorway was completely silent.

He let out a long breath of relief.

It was that strange feeling of not having done anything wrong, yet being the one to suffer second-hand embarrassment.

His gaze returned to the man lying on the bed, only to find that after that one call, the other had apparently fallen asleep under the effect of the sedative. His eyes were closed, his breathing even, and he made no comment about Xu Xiliu covering his mouth earlier. He slept in utter peace, looking calm and handsome.

Now that he was quiet, the man’s gloomy aura had lessened, leaving only paleness and frailty.

So thin and fragile.

Xu Xiliu let go of his hand and stared at the man’s serene sleeping face for a while, finally relaxing a bit.

He gave a small humph.

Then, accepting his fate, he continued tending to the man’s wounds. After applying medicine to the now-stopped bleeding palm, he carefully wrapped it in layers of gauze.

By the time he finished everything, more than an hour had passed since he had arrived at the villa.

The night had deepened. The rain seemed to have stopped. Now and then, water dripped from the eaves, tap tap.

Xu Xiliu stood up, stretched a little, and rubbed his brow, feeling the deep fatigue rising from within after staying up late. Though he was used to this kind of exhaustion, it never got comfortable. After all, who wouldn’t want to be lying snugly in bed, sound asleep, when it was time to rest?

He carefully packed up everything he had taken out, putting each item back into the medical kit in order.

While calculating how long it would take to drive back home from the villa, he picked up the kit and stepped out of the room.

Uncle Zhong came forward right on cue. Upon seeing him, Xu Xiliu responsibly reported, “Mr. Qin is asleep now. When he wakes up, he should be in a normal state. I’ve already bandaged the wound on his hand and treated the other minor injuries on his body. Just be careful not to let his hand come into contact with water for the time being.”

Xu Xiliu kept it simple, sticking to the immediate matters. As for deeper concerns—like advising the protagonist gong to stay away from his emotional triggers, or that for better recovery he should receive more advanced psychological counseling from specialized therapists—he didn’t mention any of it.

Because he knew it would be pointless. That kind of melodramatic plot only moved forward in this way. Otherwise, things like a sudden trigger leading to an episode, and him, the unwilling all-purpose private doctor from a regular family, being dragged into working late at night wouldn’t happen. He could only do his best to fulfill his role as a tool character, then exit the stage as soon as possible, hoping not to get dragged deeper into this messy and dramatic plot.

After hearing what Xu Xiliu said, Uncle Zhong glanced into the room and, seeing the man lying peacefully on the bed, looked relieved. “Thank you for your hard work, Dr. Xu.”

“It’s what I should do.”

After all, the salary was in the millions.

Xu Xiliu smiled warmly.

He was just about to leave when the housekeeper called out to stop him.

Uncle Zhong said, “It’s already so late, and we’ve troubled you to come all this way tonight. Why not stay here and rest for the night, Dr. Xu? You can recover a bit, then leave when it’s light.”

Xu Xiliu hesitated for a moment upon hearing that.

It did make some sense.

But…

After thinking it over, he recalled that the original host had stayed overnight before. When it was too late to drive back in the middle of the night, he would just stay. Given how often he might be urgently called over late in the evening from now on, there was no need to be overly polite.

So Xu Xiliu agreed with a smile. “Alright.”

Uncle Zhong led him to a guest room. Once Xu Xiliu entered, the housekeeper sensibly took his leave.

Xu Xiliu didn’t bother to inspect the guest room. He simply tidied up and lay down. Just as he was about to close his eyes and finally enjoy some much-needed sleep, he suddenly remembered that he had left his phone in the protagonist gong’s room.

After a brief internal struggle, he reluctantly sat up again.

It hadn’t been long since he left that room and came to this one. Uncle Zhong had probably returned to the protagonist gong’s room to tidy up after showing him to the guest room. Hopefully, the housekeeper was still there when he got back. Otherwise, going into the homeowner’s room alone would feel a bit odd. If someone misunderstood and thought he was sneaking around to do something suspicious, that would be troublesome.

The guest room was a bit far from the other side, so Xu Xiliu, determined to make it quick, walked briskly. On the way, however, he unexpectedly ran into someone.

The man was standing at a corner, seemingly speaking to someone on the phone. When he saw Xu Xiliu, he looked surprised for a moment, then put away the phone and walked over with a smile.

“Dr. Xu, where are you going at this hour?”

Xue Bo casually glanced at the young man hastily wearing a coat and asked probingly, “Did something happen again with the master? Are you going over to check on him?”

Xu Xiliu recognized him as the male servant who had greeted him at the villa entrance earlier.

Though his attitude at the time hadn’t been particularly welcoming.

The situation had been urgent then, so he hadn’t minded. But now…

Xu Xiliu returned the smile with a perfectly warm one of his own. “No, I just left something in Mr. Qin’s room. Since it’s not too late, I’m going back to get it.”

As he spoke, he quietly began assessing the man’s identity.

He hadn’t taken a good look earlier, but now that he was observing more closely, he noticed that the man was wearing the same neatly tailored housekeeper’s uniform as Uncle Zhong. Could it be that this man was also a housekeeper?

Having two housekeepers in one villa seemed rather unusual. Wouldn’t that risk internal conflict from overlapping authority?

Xu Xiliu quickly combed through both the plot he knew and the original host’s memories. Sure enough, he managed to find something relevant. If he wasn’t mistaken, this overly sharp-looking middle-aged man was responsible for personnel management within this mountain estate. He was something of a minor supervisor, half a housekeeper in practice. His wife was also the cook here, which gave their family a fairly solid standing in the villa.

Xu Xiliu understood the situation clearly now, though the faint, polite smile on his face didn’t change. To anyone looking, he was just a harmless little doctor who had come back to retrieve something.

Xue Bo watched him for a moment, then seemed to relax and didn’t follow. He clearly had no desire to get involved with that lunatic. He simply nodded at Xu Xiliu and walked off, as if he had something urgent to attend to.

Xu Xiliu glanced at the man’s back, then at the faint glow coming from the phone in his pocket, and raised an eyebrow.

That little manager seemed to be hiding something.

But there was nothing particularly important about him in the original host’s memories. As a private doctor who came and went strictly for medical treatment, cold and professional, most of the original host’s recollections were about treating the protagonist gong’s illness. He had little to no concern for others. The only reason Xu Xiliu could recall anything about this man was because when he had first arrived to treat the protagonist gong, this little manager had eagerly introduced himself.

Xu Xiliu mused about it idly while keeping his pace steady.

Soon, he arrived at the protagonist gong’s room.

Seeing the light spilling through the half-open door, he let out a quiet breath of relief.

Good, he had made it in time.

He slowed down as he approached, but then noticed a well-defined hand gripping the doorframe. The hand had an elegant shape, with veins bulging slightly from the force, though its color was far too pale.

In the next second, a figure appeared in the doorway—someone who definitely should not have been up at this hour.

The man was tall and thin. When standing straight, the impression of his height was even more pronounced, like a pine tree trembling in the rain. His complexion was deathly pale. He leaned against the doorframe as if trying to come out, but his strength failed him. He could only cling tightly to the frame for support, breathing heavily. Messy black hair hung over his brows. His long, narrow eyes were shrouded in gloom. With every small movement, the silk of his pajamas shifted slightly, hinting at the weakness of the body beneath.

Wasn’t this the protagonist gong who was supposed to be fast asleep under the effects of a sedative?

Why was he here?

Xu Xiliu was stunned.

The man didn’t seem to notice him. He was completely absorbed in his own world. Although he didn’t look like he was having an episode, the gloomy, sickly aura around him still made people instinctively want to keep their distance. It evoked a deep, gut-level sense of fear.

Suddenly, the man raised his head, and Xu Xiliu was caught off guard by those gloomy eyes meeting his own. His heart skipped a beat. He smiled and greeted him with a gentle expression.

“Mr. Qin… good evening?”

Qin Li pressed his lips together and said nothing. A thin layer of sweat had formed at his temples.

Feeling the weakness in his body, so frail he could barely walk, he was overwhelmed with disgust. His grip on the doorframe tightened, as if he wanted to crush the wood beneath his fingers.

Xu Xiliu saw that the man ignored him and still tried to walk out, his gaze slightly dazed, looking like he might collapse at any moment. He quickly stepped forward to support him.

If he hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But as soon as he lifted the man’s arm, the other’s weight instinctively leaned toward him, and Xu Xiliu almost got flattened.

He was shocked.

The man looked so thin, yet he was unbelievably heavy.

And he was also taller than Xu Xiliu, which made it even harder to hold him up.

It felt like he had expected to catch a sheet of paper but had ended up lifting a sandbag.

In that moment, Xu Xiliu started to regret coming over.

He did his best to steady his voice. “Mr. Qin, shouldn’t you be asleep right now? Did something happen? Why didn’t you call someone?”

Qin Li, in a disheveled state, let himself be held and squeezed his eyes shut.

His mind hovered between clarity and confusion. The clarity came from the sedative, but the confusion was due to having not eaten for nearly a whole day. The ache in his stomach had woken him from sleep with pain. This kind of pain-induced awareness made him feel his own weakness and degradation even more clearly. He could not help but dwell on it, feel it, and even remember it in a kind of self-inflicted torture.

It really was pathetic.

Qin Li muttered to himself with a mocking tone, “…Are you here to laugh at me too?”

Xu Xiliu, who had just barely managed to steady the protagonist gong, blinked. “?”

What was that supposed to mean?

If he had come to laugh at him, he would’ve just stood by and watched him fall.

Besides, what was there to laugh at right now? Was he just going to pretend it never happened when he called him “mom” while half-conscious?

He grumbled silently in his heart but kept a warm smile on his face as he asked, “Why would you say that, Mr. Qin? As your private doctor, isn’t it my duty to care about you?”

Qin Li didn’t respond.

His stomach throbbed with pain, and under that pain, he was far from clear-headed.

Half his body leaned against the young man supporting him. His head was slightly lowered, and his gaze was sunken and tired. Because of their posture, the warmth from the other person’s body flowed steadily over to him. It was comforting, so comforting it almost felt like a hallucination.

Qin Li knew that the person supporting him was his private doctor. Not long after he had been sent to this villa, this doctor had come to take care of him. But this was the first time he had ever heard the other speak such words.

Care about him.

Heh.

From who knows where, Qin Li suddenly found the strength to reach out and forcefully turn the other’s face toward his own.

There was no denying it—his private doctor had a very attractive appearance. Now, with his chin in Qin Li’s hand, he looked up at him in slight surprise. The gold-rimmed glasses were gone, and without that barrier, the allure of those long peach blossom eyes was laid completely bare. The natural red at the corners of his eyes softened his otherwise gentle look, giving rise to a faint, seductive charm.

His expression, however, was obedient and calm.

Qin Li’s gaze swept across his face like a snake. His hand then slid down and gripped the young man’s neck.

With a dark, mocking smile he said, “And what about this? Would you still care about me like this?”

His grip tightened inch by inch.

The veins on his pale hand stood out sharply, leaving no doubt that he could break the delicate neck in his grasp at any moment.

Caught off guard by the sudden chokehold, Xu Xiliu blinked and wondered what madness this man was up to now.

He felt the man’s weight leaning heavily against half his body and, speechless, loosened the strength in his hands.

So the man who had been smirking coldly just a moment ago suddenly slipped and slumped against Xu Xiliu, instantly dropping half a head shorter as he fell to his knees.

“……”

Xu Xiliu quickly hauled the man back up, letting him lean once more on his shoulder, and said with a fake smile,

“Oh dear, sorry about that, Mr. Qin. My hand slipped. Are you alright, Mr. Qin?”

Qin Li: “……”

He let out a cold laugh.

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T/N: I pray Xu Xiliu never looses his sass hahaha