DASFAM_CH 02

The midday sun shone directly into the room through the skylight; even though it was only early spring, the entire room was thick with an oppressive heat.

Half-asleep, Bai Xu heard a 'buzz buzz' vibrating sound from beside his pillow.

He frowned and fumbled for his phone. When he opened it, he saw a text message from a completely unfamiliar number—

"Hello, Young Master Bai. I am Xie Qi, assistant to Third Young Master Shang. Regarding the marriage arrangement between you and the Third Young Master, the Old Madam has instructed me to handle everything on her behalf. If you have no objections, I will arrive at the Bai residence promptly at two o'clock this afternoon to pick you up. Awaiting your reply."

In addition to that, there was also a text message from HS Bank.

A brand-new bank card linked to his phone number had just received a large deposit five minutes ago, seven figures in total.

"……"

Wealthy families certainly acted with efficiency and generosity. Even if this 'marriage arrangement' was merely a formality, the betrothal gift alone was enough to keep an ordinary person set for a long time.

Bai Xu's brow relaxed. Waking up to see this sum of money, even his morning grumpiness had dissipated considerably.

"Alright, see you at two."

Bai Xu sent a clean, simple reply and looked around—

This cramped little attic had originally been an empty storage room, as bare and shabby as could be, yet the original occupant had lived here for so many years. It was more than enough to reveal his standing in the Bai household.

It was already past mealtime. Bai Xu had no desire to go downstairs and suffer the unpleasantness of facing the Bai family. Feeling the sweat lingering on his skin, he grabbed a clean set of clothes and headed to the second-floor bathroom.

A comfortable stream of warm water poured down, washing away his exhaustion.

Bai Xu's muddled thoughts gradually grew clear. Since transmigrating into the book until now, he had fully sorted out everything about the original host—

Perhaps due to a childhood spent living under others' roofs, the original host was timid to the point of being like a ball of cotton wool.

If the Bai family refused to give him living expenses, he would find ways to earn money on his own. When trouble arose, he endured it if he could. Most of the time, he did not dare speak up for himself, and he had not a single close friend around him. Even the venting posts on his social feed were set to visible only to himself.

In the original novel's brief, sparse descriptions, after being 'married into' the Shang family, the original host once again became invisible—until power struggles broke out within the Shang family, and he, always so easy to manipulate, became a tool exploited by those fighting for control, ultimately ending up as the scapegoat sent to prison.

A pitiable, brief life, despised by all.

As Bai Xu thought of this, a sharp glint flickered in the depths of his eyes. His personality was the complete opposite of the original host's. He would not allow himself to walk down this predetermined path.

Using this marriage to leave the Bai household was only the first step in starting his new life.

Bai Xu, fresh from his shower, quickly returned to the attic. The moment he pushed open the door and stepped inside, his footsteps came to a halt.

"Well, well, back from the shower, are we?"

A somewhat flippant voice drifted toward him from ahead.

A faint disgust stirred in Bai Xu's eyes as he quietly sized up the figure leaning against the writing desk—

Bai Yan was the Bai family's true Second Young Master, only a year older than the original host. He was average-looking, but having been doted on by the entire family since childhood, he had grown up willful and overbearing.

He had always taken pleasure in tormenting the original host as a form of amusement, and no small number of the original host's 'embarrassing moments' had been orchestrated by his hand.

Bai Xu had no wish to entangle himself further with someone of this sort. He stepped aside and issued his order to leave, "This is my room. Please get out."

His tone was not harsh, but his meaning was unmistakable.

Bai Yan let out a scornful laugh and rose to approach him, "I heard from my dad that you're about to be 'married off' to the Shang family? What, you think having a backer means you can do whatever you want now? Hm?"

"......"

Bai Xu's expression was cool and indifferent; he couldn't be bothered to waste words on him.

Perhaps because he had just showered, a faint, light fragrance still lingered on him. His fair skin, warmed and flushed by the hot water, showed a subtle rosy hue, and his damp fringe hung half-dried over his forehead, vaguely revealing the soft pink scar left after the bandages had been removed.

Bai Yan's gaze drifted over him with a shallow, wandering look, and for no clear reason his mouth felt dry. He instinctively moved to reach out and touch, but Bai Xu swiftly stepped aside.

"I said, please leave."

The rejected Bai Yan, unexpectedly, did not fly into a rage. Instead, he let out a small laugh. "Well, well. Haven't seen you for more than half a month, and your temper's grown, has it?"

Come to think of it, Bai Xu's forehead wound was entirely Bai Yan's doing.

Half a month ago, Bai Rendao had called Bai Xu out by name to be married to the unconscious Shang Yanxiao. Bai Xu had been unwilling, and for once had raised his voice in refusal and protest.

Bai Yan, who had just woken up and found the commotion irritating, seized on an unguarded moment and delivered a kick.

Little did he expect that Bai Xu's slight frame could not take such a blow—his forehead struck the corner of the tea table, and he collapsed on the spot, bleeding profusely, unconscious.

Knowing he had struck too hard, Bai Yan had slipped away for the better part of a month, only to return and immediately hear the confirmed news of Bai Xu and Shang Yanxiao's marriage arrangement.

Bai Yan fixed his gaze on Bai Xu's face, convinced he had the measure of the other's soft temperament, "Alright, I'll admit I went too far that day. But who told you to be so difficult? Come here, let me see if that wound of yours has healed."

—Smack!

Bai Xu's hand shot out and slapped his away, "Don't touch me."

With that, he stepped around the stunned Bai Yan and walked toward the head of the bed.

Bai Yan stared at Bai Xu's retreating back. The arm that had been smacked away throbbed with a faint, stinging pain, and the resentment he had been keeping down suddenly surged to the surface, "Bai Xu, I'm being lenient with you? Who do you think you are? You actually think walking into the Shang family turns you into someone? If it weren't for our Bai family giving you this opportunity, you'd probably still be working for someone else right now."

"You've taken our family's money, so you got a good deal, now you ought to behave and do as you're told!"

Bai Yan let his true face show, his words growing more and more brazen and foul, "What kind of joke of a marriage arrangement is this? Isn't it just being sold off in a different way? Looking at that slight frame of yours, even if you went out selling yourself, you wouldn't last a few rounds."

"……"

A dog's mouth cannot produce ivory.

As Bai Xu listened to these unbearable, filthy words, a flicker of cold fury passed through the depths of his eyes.

This silence, in Bai Yan's eyes, read as him having regained the upper hand over the person before him, and he let out an involuntary scornful laugh.

His gaze wandered to the fair, smooth side of Bai Xu's neck, drawn without reason to a brown mole at the center of his nape, like some hidden detail placed there by the hand of creation, it stirred something restless in his chest.

Bai Yan's breath grew heavier, the agitation in his heart burning hotter and hotter.

He had long harbored unspoken, improper thoughts toward Bai Xu. Before, the nominal family relationship and the authority of Old Master Bai had kept him from acting on them, though he had always told himself that one day his chance would come.

And yet, as he waited, Old Master Bai was gone, but Bai Xu was about to leave the Bai household as well.

What kind of joke of a marriage arrangement?

As the saying goes, the one nearest the water enjoys moonlight first. Even if Bai Xu was to be handed off, he ought to get his taste first.

His mind made up, Bai Yan reached over and shut the door.

At the sound of the door, Bai Xu spun around quickly. He met Bai Yan's eyes, and in an instant understood the other man's unspeakable, filthy intentions.

"……"

Well then. This one was asking for a beating.

Bai Xu lowered his gaze, a faint, quiet coldness flickering in the depths of his eyes. When he raised his head again, his expression had shifted all at once, and he took a few unsteady steps back, as if flustered.

"W-what are you doing?"

The nightstand blocked Bai Xu's retreat, forcing his body to press back against it, half-leaning, half-braced, with nowhere left to run.

Bai Yan closed in, looking down at the little lamb before him as though it were already slaughtered, "Scared now, are you?"

"You…"

Bai Xu's throat bobbed. After a long moment of apparent panic, he managed to squeeze out only one feeble line, "…Don't you dare try anything."

A threat with no force behind it, paired with a body that trembled ever so slightly— it stirred in the other man an urge to torment that was difficult to name or explain.

Feeling Bai Xu's presence growing weaker and weaker, Bai Yan believed victory was already in his grasp, "Bai Xu, back then the Old Master believed in fortune and fate and took you in. Now that he's gone, who in this house do you think still cares about you?"

"Don't forget this is my house. I can do whatever I want here. If you call anyone over right now, do you think they'll side with you or with me?"

"……"

"Besides, you're already being sent off and sold away by my parents sooner or later anyway, so why not let me have a taste first?" Bai Yan pressed closer, making no attempt to hide his desire, "If you cooperate nicely and behave, I might go a little easier on you."

Bai Xu appeared to have lost his nerve and his will to resist.

"Seems like you're not so dumb after all," Bai Yan was quite satisfied with Bai Xu's compliance, and tilted his head to bring his mouth close to his ear, "Don't worry, I'll make sure you have the best experience."

The words had barely left his mouth when Bai Xu, who had only been feigning compliance, seized his moment—

Taking advantage of their proximity, he suddenly drove his knee upward in a swift, merciless strike directly to the vulnerable spot.

"—Ah!"

Unable to bear the sudden devastating blow, Bai Yan lost his balance and collapsed onto the bed, his face rapidly flushing red as an expression of unbearable agony spread across it, his whole body desperate to curl in on itself.

Veins bulged at his temple as he stared at Bai Xu in disbelief, "You-, you!"

"What about me?"

Bai Xu snatched up the desk lamp from the table and brought it down hard.

In an instant, the explosive pain at his forehead wrung another wretched howl from Bai Yan. Blood blurred his vision, and through that crimson haze, Bai Xu stood there cold and still—his eyes sharp and vicious, as though he had become an entirely different person.

Not a lamb waiting to be slaughtered at all—but a snow leopard, ready to deliver a lethal strike at any moment.

In the span of a few short seconds, the flippant ease with which Bai Yan had been toying with someone moments ago was gone entirely. In its place rose a bone-deep, piercing fear, "You, what are you going to do?"

"Shouldn't that be my question to ask?"

Bai Xu lightly touched the scar on his own forehead, "Just returning the favor, that's all."

Every bit of ridicule and suffering the original owner had endured in this house, he would naturally collect it all back before leaving.

The words had barely settled when the locked door was opened from outside.

Qian Shuling, who had been on the second floor, heard her son's screams and rushed over with a servant to see what had happened. They clearly had a spare key—the original host had never had any privacy or freedom in this house to speak of.

When Qian Shuling made out the wound on Bai Yan's forehead, she turned pale with alarm, "What happened?!"

"Xiao Yan, what's wrong with you? Come, let Mom have a look!"

"Mom—"

Bai Yan was in too much pain to speak.

A man in his twenties, and yet at this moment he could only hide in his own mother's arms seeking shelter—a perfectly vivid picture of a grown man who had never left his mother's apron strings. It was nauseating.

"Why are you still standing there, go get the first aid kit! No, call an ambulance!"

Qian Shuling snapped at the servant for being slow to read the room, then immediately turned her hostile gaze on the one responsible, "Bai Xu, was this you! My, my—your nerve just keeps growing, doesn't it!"

Bai Xu narrowed his eyes slightly, "What are you squawking about?"

"……"

Qian Shuling startled.

"Why don't you ask what he was trying to do to me?"

Bai Xu fired back without a hint of guilt. His gaze dropped slightly, and with perfect precision he brought the desk lamp in his hand crashing down at Qian Shuling's feet.

Clang.

As the heavy object struck the floor, both mother and son flinched.

"Even a cornered rabbit will bite. As for me, I'd call this—"

Bai Xu paused deliberately, his tone light and unhurried as he offered his justification.

"Self-defense."

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