Even in the entertainment industry, this man’s looks would have ranked among the very best.
He had exceptional bone structure and flawless features. His eyebrows were neither too thick nor too light, but perfectly balanced. His eye sockets were slightly deep-set, lending his gaze greater depth. Illness had left his skin excessively pale and his cheeks too thin, draining him of vitality, yet that only made his glistening eyes appear even more tender and affectionate.
His slightly long, soft black hair framed his face. Several sweat-dampened strands clung to his cheek and neck. Instead of looking dirty or disheveled, he appeared all the more fragile and helpless, stirring improper thoughts.
Shao Siyan’s throat bobbed. The agitation he had only just suppressed surged again.
“Help you?”
Pay a debt for him?
“Are you on drugs, or do you owe gambling debts?”
How could young people today be so shameless? He was young but refused to live honestly, and now he had come to sponge money off Shao Siyan.
He would use every possible trick to demand money from a stranger without the slightest embarrassment.
He gently shook his head. “I don’t want money.”
What he wanted was a bonding.
But he could not say it.
Even as a double-S-rank guide in both mental power and empathy, he was too ashamed to abruptly ask a complete stranger to bond with him.
He could not force that word out for a long time, but his mental tendrils moved ahead of his conscious will. They drifted toward Shao Siyan and gently circled his mind.
Still no answer.
Unlike before, however, Shao Siyan did not become displeased at being ignored. Instead, his mind suddenly cleared, and his formerly taut nerves relaxed considerably.
He even felt inclined to straighten the clothes Chi Junyan had rumpled, then asked at an unhurried pace, “You don’t want money. What do you want, then?”
Remembering the sight of this man struggling with others in the dark alley and the way he had gone limp in his arms, Shao Siyan’s eyes darkened. The corners of his blade-sharp lips lifted in a mocking curve.
Could he have come for Shao Siyan’s life?
When sending a woman failed, they had switched to sending a man.
How novel.
He was so sick, yet he had still gone off to take a side job between assignments. What third-rate assassin had they found?
At least his looks were barely passable.
Shao Siyan’s gaze settled on Chi Junyan’s faintly trembling, pale lips.
They were dry and peeling and did not look soft at all, yet they possessed a different kind of sensuality.
Chi Junyan felt as though a ball of fire were burning deep within him. It blazed higher and higher, rapidly consuming his life force.
He abruptly bit his lower lip to keep himself from uttering anything shameful.