QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

Xi Zirui circles Su Xueyi gingerly.

Lying in a puddle of his own blood lies Shen Yun, his eyes wide open in frozen terror. 

He didn't see death coming. The shock in his eyes tells Xi Zirui that he knew his killer's identity.

Not that that is saying much.

Bai Mi's heels click on the raw concrete floor as she makes her way towards them, cursing all along.

She groans as soon as she sees Shen Yun's body. "Well, that's a fucking trainwreck." She turns to Su Xueyi, "Did he make the first payment?"

He nods, inspecting the body dispassionately. "Last night." He kicks one of Shen Yun's stiff legs. "And now someone killed him and dumped him here."

Xi Zirui shakes his head. "No, he was killed here." He turns around to point out the trail of blood they just followed. "The question is, who lured him here?"

Su Xueyi takes a handkerchief out of his breast pocket and pinches it between his fingers to rummage through Shen Yun's pockets.

He finds his mobile, and unlocks it with Shen Yun's thumbprint, being careful to keep the handkerchief over his own fingers.

"What the fuck?" he curses and shows the screen to Bai Mi.

Her eyebrows climb up to heir hairline. "Do you want to tell me why he got a WeChat message from you, telling him to meet up here?"

Su Xueyi gives her a derisive look. "I obviously didn't send it."

Xi Zirui lifts the bottom of his tshirt to take the mobile out of Su Xueyi's hands. "Your WeChat was cloned," he says, inspecting the conversation.

Bai Mi punches him on the arm. "It's all the sluts you hang out with!" 

"I think so too," Xi Zirui says, returning the phone to Su Xueyi. "Probably one of them stole your mobile while you weren't paying attention and cloned your WeChat."

Bai Mi stomps her feet on the ground, screaming in unsuppressed rage until it all melts off her system and her poised composure returns to her. 

"How are we going to handle this?" she points down at Shen Yun's corpse. "We can't draw attention to our operation by having the police involved, and you know the Shen family isn't going to believe we didn't have a hand in his death."

She's right on all counts, which means Shen Yun was killed in the warehouse specifically to incriminate Su Xueyi. 

Su Xueyi curses and pockets Shen Yun's mobile. He runs one hand over his face. "I'm going to call Lao Rong and have him handle this mess."

"Are you thinking acid to get rid of the body?" Bai Mi asks, nodding along.

"Safer than pigs," Su Xueyi clicks his tongue in distaste while texting someone. 

He spares Xi Zirui a short apologetic smile, as if he's sorry their date was ruined. "I'm sorry, baby, I think we'll have to show you the ropes some other day."

Bai Mi smirks at him, while tilting her head towards Shen Yun's body. "You sure you're still up for it?"

Xi Zirui shrugs. "I've seen worse on TV."

His eyes dart downwards, his gaze arrested on Shen Yun's bloodless lips and terrified eyes, on the pool of congealing blood beneath his head. He really, really hasn't.

---

Liao Min is surprised to see them back so soon, but wisely doesn't comment on it.

Su Xueyi instructs her to drop off Xi Zirui at home and then drive him and Bai Mi back to the company.

Xi Zirui doesn't question any of it. He would like to get more information on the extent of Su Xueyi's illegal dealings, but there's a theory he's curious to put to the test.

Bai Mi's comment about Su Xueyi's "whores" doesn't leave his mind.

No one else would have such easy access, and there's only a limited cast of characters, since by now Xi Zirui understands how the "Transmigrator 4000" operates.

He gives Su Xueyi a kiss on the cheek before leaving the car, not sparing him a glance before making his way into their building.

When he reaches the upper floor leading to the stone walkway and small garden area before the entrance to the penthouse, Han Yu is already waiting for him.

"Liao Min texted me that she saw you coming out of the warehouse too early, and looking worried. She said it didn't look good."

"Shen Yun is dead," Xi Zirui says, pushing the front door closed, which Han Yu left ajar.

He gives him a puzzled look. 

"Let's talk out here first before going in, it's safer." 

Out here there is only the blue sky above their heads, and none of Su Xueyi's handy little cameras.

Better to make sure Han Yu got rid of them all, before risking their luck.

---

As soon as Xi Zirui tells him his theory regarding who might have cloned Su Xueyi's mobile, Han Yu's eyes widen in realization.

"I need to show you something."

Xi Zirui can't help feeling like he's being watched as soon as he steps foot inside the house. 

Han Yu assures him he disabled every camera, but how certain can he really be?

Xi Zirui follows him into his own room, which he has only seen a sliver of.

It's less messy than Xi Zirui imagined, but that might also be because of how impersonal it looks. It's spacious, like all other rooms in the penthouse, but sparsely decorated, like a guest room meant for an unlikable family member.

Han Yu hasn't done much to make it his own.

There's a laptop on the narrow single bed, with a hard drive connected to it.

Han Yu smirks when he catches Xi Zirui looking at it. "That's where the videos are being recorded. I found it hidden in the laundry room, the kind of place he knew you would never visit of your own volition."

Xi Zirui rolls his eyes at him and sits down on the bed. 

He hoists the laptop into his lap at the same time Han Yu tries to close the screen down.

Now it's Xi Zirui's turn to smirk.

"Have you watched it?" Xi Zirui asks, admiring the redness on Han Yu's neck. "Was it hot?"

"You know it was, fuck," Han Yu admits, lowering his eyes.

It's funny seeing him so contrite after his boldness via text message.

The video must really be something.

"Show me," he shifts the laptop around in his lap so that Han Yu can reach the mousepad.

Han Yu groans but still selects a file from a folder filled with hundreds of others, titled with strings of capital roman letters.

He scrolls forward a good chunk into the video. When he stops Xi Zirui recognizes his own naked back, arched backwards while riding Han Yu.

With a quivering breath, Han Yu presses play.

Xi Zirui had no idea he could look like that. He watches as the Xi Zirui on screen uses Han Yu's body for his own pleasure, moving above him in sensual rolls of his hips, bouncing on his cock in open-mouthed ecstasy. 

But it's Han Yu that rivets him. Xi Zirui can't look away from his bitten lower lip, so red and bruised that it looks like a plum about to burst, his fingers bent into claws and digging into Xi Zirui's hips as if he'll die if he lets go, but above all, Xi Zirui can't look away from his eyes.

Han Yu's eyes are trained on Xi Zirui's face, watching for every shift in his expression as he rides him with abandon, shinning with a mixture of lust, rapture, and some unnamed tender emotion that makes Xi Zirui's breath catch in his throat.

He understands Han Yu's shyness now.

Xi Zirui chances a sideways glance towards him, but finds him fiddling with his zipper, red all over.

"We look good," Xi Zirui says, bumping his shoulder into Han Yu's. "Too bad Su Xueyi is never going to see this."

He exits the video and promptly deletes it from the folder.

"Hey, I was going to jerk off to that later," Han Yu groans in fake dismay.

Xi Zirui drapes himself over his shoulder and bites at his earlobe. "I'll give you a private show, whenever you want."

Han Yu catches him around he waist with one arm and holds his chin in place between two fingers. "I'll hold you to that," he says, before pressing his lips against Xi Zirui's in a heated kiss, that has Xi Zirui moaning into it, and clutching at his back.

When Han Yu pulls away there's still a thread of saliva connecting them. Xi Zirui wants to follow it back to Han Yu's soft lips.

"Let me show you what I found while I was looking for our video," Han Yu says, stopping Xi Zirui with a hand on his chest. "We don't know when Su Xueyi will get back, and I'd hate to start something I can't finish."

His eyes shine with the promise of everything he wants to do to Xi Zirui, who feels a thrill run down his spine.

Han Yu takes the laptop from Xi Zirui and slides it onto his own lap. After scrolling around for a while, he finds what he is looking for.

"Recognize him?" He turns the laptop towards Xi Zirui and hits play.

The scene isn't much different from the one they just saw. A man lying on his back, while another rides him.

But while Xi Zirui was in control the entire time, in this video Cao Fei is just being bounced around according to Su Xueyi's whims, reduced to something for him to fuck into.

He's making all the right noises, and saying all the right things, but Xi Zirui recognizes the pageantry. It's the same as he saw in the video Su Xueyi showed Bai Mi, of him and the original.

Which begs the question: Why is Cao Fei subjecting himself to being Su Xueyi's lover if he doesn't even enjoy the sex?

Han Yu stops the video and forwards until a few hours later. Stopping once the room falls dark.

Su Xueyi and Cao Fei are sleeping side by side, apparently all is quiet.

That is until Cao Fei gets up from the bed, with the dexterity of someone who hadn't been asleep at all, and pads towards Su Xueyi's side of the bed.

Carefully, he uses Su Xueyi's thumb to unlock his mobile. It's impossible to tell what he's doing, but he taps away for a while, until a light goes off on the mobile resting over the other side table.

Cao Fei goes to it and taps away some more before slipping back into bed next to Su Xueyi.

Han Yu points at the screen. "That must be when he cloned Su Xueyi's WeChat."

"He can have cloned his whole phone for all we know," Xi Zirui says with a shrug.

It's not surprising in the least that Cao Fei is the one responsible, what Xi Zirui wants to know is why.

Could Su Xueyi have hurt someone he loved too? Threatened a family member?

Did he kill Shen Yun in cold blood. He doesn't look the type, it's difficult to imagine someone so meek and mild-mannered going to those lengths, but what does Xi Zirui know about him really?

There's also another variable he hasn't considered, if things continue to follow the same pattern as they have in the previous worlds.

"Save that video to your phone or something, and delete it from the folder, we don't want Su Xueyi to see it," Xi Zirui says. "Tomorrow, you're going with me to the company, and we're taking the car."