Chapter 3096: After the divorce, forced to compete with my ex‑husband 26

The scene changed again.

In the hospital corridor, Jin Chen saw himself being sent to the emergency room; Chenshu stood in the corridor, covered in blood, medical staff came over wanting to treat the wound on his hand, he shook his head, always staring at the red light lit above the emergency room door, blood dripped from his fingertips onto the floor.

Fortunately the aircraft had been personally modified by Chenshu; fortunately Chenshu's rescue was very timely; fortunately Jin Chen that day, out of laziness, had engaged the not‑fast autopilot mode; fortunately the injuries were not serious…

But even with many fortunes piled together, they could not outweigh Chenshu's deep regret.

Later, Chenshu ordered people to bring Chi Mu again from detention for interrogation, but Chi Mu vanished without a trace in the multilayered prison; only a video message left in the optical brain remained, in which Chi Mu smiled, speaking through the screen to Chenshu on the other side, saying they would meet again.

Jin Chen finally understood that Chenshu's hatred for Chi Mu, at times it could not be concealed, was far deeper than his own.

He originally thought that after this event passed, he could see another hallucination of Chenshu about what happened after he woke up, but he did not expect that after a flash of white light, he would return to that familiar street.

Fine rain drizzled, streetlights glowed dimly, pedestrians were sparse.

Jin Chen slowly looked at Chenshu, a fine, dense ache appearing in his eyes, his heart feeling sore and soft.

In this hallucination, time loops repeatedly, endlessly replaying.

Chenshu was trapped in this day, trapped in the nightmare where fine rain and firelight intertwined, over and over returning to this scene, over and over watching the aircraft crash before his eyes, over and over experiencing the gap from full anticipation to plunging into the abyss.

Jin Chen stood in the fine rain for a long time, watching Chenshu's back; the rain curtain blurred the street's outline, also tracing that silhouette like a faded old photograph.

What has happened in reality cannot be reversed.

That accident had already happened, but at least in this hallucination, in this pain cycle magnified countless times by Chenshu, he wanted to give Chenshu a less painful date.

Jin Chen turned and left that street, returning to the home he shared with Chenshu.

Everything in the home remained frozen at the moment before the accident, like a specimen preserved in amber, waiting for someone to revive it.

Jin Chen placed a call using the home's communication equipment. When the call connected, Chenshu had not yet reached that street; background audio carried the sound of wind blowing through the street.

"... Xiao Chen?"

"Come back," Jin Chen said, "Chenshu, I'm waiting for you at home."

The other end of the line fell silent for a few seconds, "... Okay."

In this endlessly looping pain, Chenshu, upon realizing this call differed from every previous one, seemed to suddenly regain his senses.

He had been trapped in this cycle for a long time, but what was going on now?

Chenshu entered the living room and saw Jin Chen curled up on the sofa in pajamas, apparently studying something on the optical brain; hearing the door open, he lifted his head, his eyes brightening.

He waved at Chenshu with a light voice, "Come in quickly."

Chenshu suddenly lost all ability to pretend, took a few quick steps, and tightly embraced the young lover on the sofa, holding him as if wanting to fuse him into his very bones and blood.

Jin Chen was forced to lean back by his grip, his shoulders sinking into the sofa cushions; he patted Chenshu's hand, "Don't hold me so tight..."

Chenshu immediately relaxed his arm's strength; even though he was reluctant, even though he wanted to hold his beloved like that until the ends of the earth, Jin Chen spoke, and he instinctively complied, his arms loosely encircling Jin Chen's waist.

Seeing how much Chenshu wanted to cling, Jin Chen simply reached out, pulling Chenshu fully into his embrace, then drew the sofa blanket over them, wrapping them tightly with no gap left; this pose was one Chenshu often used to comfort him in the days after he first came to Chenshu's side.

Chenshu's breathing eased from ragged to calm as he cupped Jin Chen's face, his thumb lightly stroking the cheekbone before kissing down; a fuzzy thought drifted through his mind… Are he and Xiao Chen actually divorced now?

But that doubt existed only an instant, then corrected by the hallucination's powerful will; the implausible details were smoothed away, leaving only the happy, reassuring fantasy—his Xiao Chen still unharmed in his arms.

In the years‑long ache of illness, Chenshu did not want to wake; he wished to linger a little longer in this hallucination.

He released the kiss, picked up the fruit knife on the table, turned the handle and slipped it into Jin Chen's hand, blade pointing at himself.

Chenshu whispered soothingly to Jin Chen, his voice hoarse yet gentle, a near‑enticement: "Xiao Chen, leave many marks on my body, okay?"

While saying that, he lingered, kissing Jin Chen's neck and earlobe with reluctance, greedily drawing in Jin Chen's breath, the panting between breaths barely there, his full chest pressing against Jin Chen through the cloth, the warm touch and supple elasticity easily arousing the urge to dominate deep inside, "Hurt me hard… Bao Bao."

Jin Chen looked at the knife in his hand with a complex expression, then at Chenshu's face slightly lifted, eyes full of expectation and longing. In the hallucination, Chenshu blended pain and pleasure more thoroughly; the boundaries that could still be distinguished in reality became blurred here.

But pain is pain; only when lacking sufficient affection does one deceive oneself into willingly sinking into it.

Jin Chen tightened his embrace around Chenshu's hand, took the knife, turned it at his fingertips, then reversed the blade to lie horizontally across his own neck.

Chenshu's pupils contracted sharply, as if wrenched free from a suffocating mire; he reached to grasp the blade, but Jin Chen seized his wrist, pulling his hand to the lips, kissing his curled fingertip lightly.

"Do you want me to do this?" Jin Chen asked.

"No……" Chenshu's voice hoarse as if his throat were blocked, panicked yet urgent, "Xiao Chen, don't hurt yourself!"

"And you?" Jin Chen gazed at him, fixing his sight on his brows and eyes, "What gives you the right to force me to hurt you?"

Chenshu's expression flashed a moment of blankness; he stared blankly as Jin Chen returned the knife to his hand.

He flung the knife away as if holding something hot, somewhat panickedly embracing Jin Chen, lightly patting his back, tone flustered, "Did I scare you…?"

"Yes." Jin Chen said, moving closer to rub his cheek against Chenshu's.

His hand slipped under Chenshu's collar; a fine chain hung from Chenshu's neck, its pendant their wedding diamond ring. He lifted the chain from Chenshu's neck, held the ring in his palm, then placed both hands behind his back.

"Let's play a luck game, Uncle Chenshu." Jin Chen said, his voice a bit lighter than before.

"Guess which hand holds the diamond ring, and I'll grant you two requests."

In Chenshu's dim eyes a faint light shone, as if the words had awakened a distant warm memory; a soft, almost nostalgic expression rose in his brows, as though through this game he glimpsed an afternoon long ago.

This game was taught to Jin Chen by Chenshu.

At that time, fifteen‑year‑old Jin Chen had just been sent to Chenshu's side, thin and small, wary and disappointed toward everything around him. He did not believe anyone would treat him kindly for no reason, did not believe he deserved good treatment, and even less believed that this stranger, a high‑ranking Imperial General of the empire, would sincerely accept him.

Jin Chen stayed in that strange house for half a month, each day wearing a stern face, speaking neither word nor laugh, drawing close to no one.

Then one day, a minor matter tugged at the overly tight string, his eyes reddened as he stood in the corridor, stubbornly thinking he too should be sent away, discarded like trash.

Chenshu summoned him to the study. With his back to the afternoon sun, he bent slightly, his eyes level with the fifteen‑year‑old Jin Chen, his voice gentle and steady.

"Xiao Chen, let's play a luck game—guess which hand holds the candy, and I'll fulfill three of your requests, okay?"

Fifteen‑year‑old Jin Chen was past the age of needing candy, but perhaps to spend more time with the ever‑busy Uncle Chenshu, he went along and guessed the left hand.

Chenshu opened his palm; a candy wrapped in gold foil lay in his hand.

Jin Chen obtained the candy, and also received Chenshu's three unconditional promises. He thought, even if Chenshu one day wanted to send him away, he could use one request to let Uncle Chenshu keep him an extra year.

With such confidence, Jin Chen gradually opened his heart, beginning to believe that perhaps someone in this world would truly treat him well without expecting anything in return.

At that time Jin Chen did not know that Chenshu had candy in both hands behind his back; whichever hand he chose, he would win.

Just as Chenshu now does not know, Jin Chen has diamond rings in both hands behind his back—his own and Chenshu's.

No matter whether Chenshu chooses the left hand or the right hand, he will win.

It's a game of luck, and also a game of happiness.

"I choose the left hand," Chenshu said.

Jin Chen smiled, extending his left hand before him, slowly opening his palm.

Chenshu lowered his head, finger by finger prying open his fingers, the diamond ring lay in Jin Chen's palm, the pad of his finger rubbing the extremely fine engraving on the inner band, which Jin Chen had personally engraved back then, the crooked two-letter abbreviation J and S squeezed together, like two people who aren't good at expressing affection sitting side by side.

Jin Chen took the ring, pulled Chenshu's left hand over, and placed it on his ring finger.

He lowered his head, his lips touching the finger wearing the ring, then lifted up, pressing his forehead against Chenshu's, the tips of their noses rubbing together.

"After you wake up, come find me in reality to redeem."