Teasing the Unruly Disciple

Hardly anyone had high hopes for Tang Chen and Ye Cheng’s relationship, yet unexpectedly, they walked a smoother path than many couples who seemed deeply in love.

They held their wedding in a country where same-s*x marriage was legal, completely unafraid of coming out before the public.

Though they spent their entire lives bickering on a daily basis, they never once truly lost their tempers at each other, sharing an affection that left many envious.

A lifetime together until their hair turned white.

Tang Chen returned to the blank space used for resting.

He closed his eyes and opened them again, sorting through the cluttered thoughts in his heart. After a brief respite, he entered the next world.

A dark room, the air thick and tightly coiled with a heavy stench of blood.

The atmosphere was dull and oppressive, resembling those spine-chilling horror flicks where one feels compelled to cover their eyes and peek through the cracks of their fingers.

The moment Tang Chen opened his eyes, this was the scene he was met with. The overly dense scent of blood in his nose made him feel somewhat nauseous.

Scanning the room, he caught sight of a person lying on the floor right by his feet—completely motionless, without a shred of breath.

A dead body.

His heart skipped a beat, but he rapidly regained his composure.

He had seen much larger scenes than this; this was nothing, just don’t throw up.

He then turned his head and dry-heaved anyway.

The plot filtered automatically into his brain.

In this world, the Male Lead was an assassin. During his childhood, he lost all his relatives in a single night, embarking on a path of vengeance from then on, his personality cold and ruthless.

It wasn’t until later when he encountered the Protagonist Shou—a common medical student who was kind and pure, remaining highly optimistic and proactive despite growing up in a single-parent household—that the Shou slowly marched into his heart after repeatedly saving the Male Lead by accident.

As for the body Tang Chen currently occupied, it belonged to the very master who had ushered the Male Lead onto the path of an assassin. Furthermore, this master was the one who later accepted a hit to kill the Protagonist Shou’s father, with whom the Shou mutually depended on for survival.

A textbook villainous figure, he ultimately became one of the targets of the Male Lead’s vengeance.

After reviewing the plot, Tang Chen developed a rather unfavorable premonition regarding his status as an assassin.

The number of times he would have to trouble the company in the future would absolutely not be small, ah.

He cast a glance at the anonymous deceased player on the floor, pressing his palms together: Have a safe journey.

Then, turning around immediately, he hurriedly left the room, crossing the corridor and heading down the stairs. Discovering a few more people sprawled on the ground below, Tang Chen’s steps paused as he rapidly departed while muttering the Diamond Sutra under his breath.

Stepping out of the villa, he found that the sky outside had already grown dark, obscuring everything.

It truly carried the vibe of a dark and windy night perfect for murder.

Following the original host’s memories, he walked toward his place of residence.

There weren’t many pedestrians on the road, and most were simply rushing home, lacking the leisure to pay attention to matters that had nothing to do with them.

For instance, a thin and weak child huddled in a corner of the wall, his head lowered, his clothes soiled, and his figure pathetic—looking precisely like a little beggar.

For anyone seeing him, their first reaction would likely be that this was a little scam artist; they could never imagine that he was actually a pitiful orphan whose family had been destroyed, struggling hard just to survive.

This child was none other than the Male Lead, Xiao Yi.

At a mere thirteen years of age, he was enduring the immense grief in his heart, searching everywhere for free food to fill his stomach, while having evaded human traffickers who intended to abduct him twice. Currently, he was temporarily leaning against the corner of the wall to rest for a bit.

Yet, even though his body was exhausted, his spirit remained exceptionally tense and vigilant.

Tang Chen halted his steps, walking over to squat down in front of him. The moment he did, the boy snapped his eyes open, his hands resting by his sides secretly clenching into fists as his entire body tensed.

Tang Chen merely extended a finger to poke his thin shoulder, saying:

“Are you dead? Or perhaps close to it?”

Hearing these words, Xiao Yi instantly held a breath of stifled rage in his chest, feeling a throbbing pain in the area where his left thoracic cavity beat as he inhaled sharply.

Tang Chen had no idea what was going on in his mind, simply concerned with whether he had arrived too late and whether the Male Lead’s body could hold out.

Hearing the other party’s somewhat rapid breathing, he was presumably alive, but the breathing rhythm of an ordinary person shouldn’t be that fast, right? Could he have a fever?

He reached out his hand to touch the child’s forehead, breathing a sigh of relief upon finding the temperature normal.

He then began to make a show of feeling Xiao Yi’s arms and legs, saying:

“I happen to want to take on a disciple. Seeing how pathetic you look, you probably have nowhere else to go, right? Why not come to my place—room and board included, and I’ll even teach you how to kill people.”

Xiao Yi had starved for several days; currently, even moving a single bit was difficult. When he was gathered into Tang Chen’s embrace, he had absolutely no way to resist, even harboring a hint of greed for this long-overdue warmth.

His mind spun rapidly, calculating the various possibilities that lay ahead and devising methods to counter them.

The child’s frame was thin and weak, feeling light and weightless in his arms.

As various scenes flashed through Tang Chen’s mind, he subconsciously tightened his grip minutely. Pursing his lips, he patted the child’s back lightly in a comforting manner.

He walked all the way to the residential community where he lived. Just as he entered, he happened to collide head-on with a yellow-haired man—a peer of the original host.

The yellow-haired man cast a glance at the person in his arms.

“Yo, you actually brought a kid back? What do you intend to do—raise a child bride? Oh wait, that’s wrong; you can’t even get hard for women, haha! Have you finally decided to raise a pretty boy?”

Yellow-hair loved living it up, spending all the money he earned on playing around with women. His life motto was to enjoy himself while he was alive today, for who knew which day he would drop dead.

Consequently, he lacked any filter on his mouth, letting words bypass his brain completely, making it incredibly easy for him to offend people.

The original host usually either ignored him or gave him a beating if he couldn’t stand listening anymore.

Tang Chen was currently too lazy to deal with him either, casting a sidelong glance before directly bypassing him to walk away.

The yellow-haired man spat:

“An impotent fellow, yet still so damn arrogant. Looking at him is annoying.”

Finishing his curse, he turned around to go out and live it up.

The original host lived in an ordinary apartment unit—the textbook layout for a single male, featuring one bedroom and one living room.

Tang Chen opened the door and entered the apartment, placing the child onto the sofa.

He had initially intended to give him a bath first, but considering that the words spoken by Yellow-hair just now might inspire unwanted thoughts in the Male Lead, it wasn’t wise to act rashly.

Xiao Yi sat on the sofa, leaning against it with his head lowered and remaining silent, acting as though he didn’t exist.

Tang Chen turned around and entered the kitchen to heat up the milk he had just purchased, handing it into the boy’s hands before speaking bluntly:

“I am an assassin, and I brought you back to be my disciple, so there’s no need to worry about anything else. You heard what that yellow-haired guy said just now; I’m impotent, destined to leave behind no descendants. I’ll teach you how to kill and give you a place to live; in the future, you just need to offer some worship before my grave. Quite a bargain, isn’t it?”

Xiao Yi cradled the warm milk, keeping his head lowered as he drank silently. Tang Chen could completely fail to guess what he was thinking.

‘Sigh, I really want a mind-reading ability.’

System:

[ This skill has not been developed. Furthermore, doing so would make the mission far too simple. ]

It was just like playing a video game—playing on easy felt boring, yet playing on hard made one want to use cheats.

Tang Chen curled his lip, still focusing seriously on performing his mission to strive for an year-end bonus so he could kickstart a high-end vacation.

“Let’s eat something first. I’ll order takeout; what do you want to eat?”

The child remained consistently silent.

“Then we’ll have lean meat congee; it’s easier to digest. We’ll start eating what you like tomorrow.”

Once Tang Chen finished his phone call, the living room returned to a quiet stillness. This atmosphere was truly…

He simply stood up and walked into the bedroom, intending to search for a set of clothes that Xiao Yi could wear.

As he walked away, he failed to notice the Male Lead behind him lifting his head to stare fixedly at his retreating back, looking deep in thought.

He laid the clothes over the armrest of the sofa.

“Once you’re finished eating in a bit, go take a shower. These are my clothes; just make do with them for now, and I’ll take you to buy some tomorrow.”

Tang Chen looked at the child.

With his thin build and straight spine, he was clearly only at the age of a middle school student, yet his entire aura was deathly still—devoid of any of a youth’s sunlight or vitality. He didn’t make a single sound, offering zero response to the outside world.

He couldn’t help but knit his brows.

With this appearance of trusting absolutely no one, how am I supposed to break through?

“I forgot to mention, my name is Tang Chen. You can call me Master in the future. If you’re unwilling, you can call me ‘Brother,’ or… forget it, calling me by name is fine too. You can speak, right? If you don’t want to talk, just nod or give a grunt; completely ignoring others is a bit impolite.”

Xiao Yi suddenly stood up, picking up the clothes from the sofa.

Lifting his eyelids, a pair of dark, round eyes stared intently at Tang Chen—empty and deathly still.

Being stared at with such a gaze made Tang Chen’s scalp tingle minutely.

“What are you looking at me for?”

Yet, the other party merely gave him a deep look before turning around to enter the bathroom.

Left entirely alone, Tang Chen remained stiff for a good while, marveling at the fact that he was actually driven to nervousness by the gaze of a middle school student.

He couldn’t help but let out a mock chuckle, taking a beer from the coffee table, pulling the tab, and tilting his head back to drink.

The takeout had just arrived when Xiao Yi also emerged, having timed it perfectly.

With the filth washed away, his exceptionally exquisite features were revealed. His face was pale, looking like the textbook case of a sickly, beautiful youth.

Tang Chen paused for a moment, pointing toward the plastic bag on the table:

“Your lean meat congee, eat it while it’s hot.”

Xiao Yi sat down, opened the lid of the bowl, and began to eat. Right from the start, he scooped up a massive spoonful and stuffed it into his mouth, acting as though he didn’t know it was hot.

Tang Chen immediately snatched his spoon away, saying urgently:

“Why are you eating so fast? Aren’t you afraid of scalding yourself to death? You can’t eat like this when you’ve starved past the limit!”

Xiao Yi lifted his eyes, staring straight at him.

His eyes were dark and bright, his eyelashes were long and curled, his nose was straight, and his lip shape was highly attractive—he would definitely be something extraordinary in the future.

Tang Chen was dazed for a moment, discovering that he had actually stared blankly.

Averting his gaze, he let out a couple of coughs to explain:

“Eating like this harms your stomach. Eat slowly.”

Only after speaking did he hand the spoon back with a hint of guilt.

Xiao Yi lowered his head, beginning to scoop half-spoonfuls at a time, moving the spoon to his mouth at a steady, unchanging pace—neither fast nor slow.

While eating, Tang Chen observed him. Seeing that the boy had truly taken his words to heart, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, focusing seriously on eating his own braised pork rice.

After finishing, he packed the food containers into the plastic bag and tied it securely, intending to toss it into the trash can downstairs tomorrow.

Tang Chen cast a glance at the child beside him, walked into the bedroom, and emerged with a quilt and a blanket in his hands.

Spreading the blanket over the sofa and placing the quilt on top, he said:

“You’ll sleep on the sofa tonight; I’ll find a way to get a bed back here tomorrow.”

Seeing that Xiao Yi offered no objections, he turned around and returned to his bedroom.

In the middle of the night, Tang Chen was awakened by intermittent cries. The sounds were exceptionally suppressed and painful, sounding highly creeping in the pitch-black night.

Tang Chen let out a sigh, got out of bed, and walked to the living room. Sure enough, he found the figure on the sofa curled into a ball, his brows knit, his face deathly pale, and his lips moving unconsciously.

Tang Chen bent over to scoop the boy into his arms, carrying him along with the quilt directly to the bed in his room.

Then, he also lay down beside him, his hand lightly patting the boy’s back stroke by stroke. He tilted his head back, yawning continuously, occasionally closing his eyes by accident. When his movements stopped, he would suddenly snap awake and resume his slow patting.

Throughout the entire night, Tang Chen didn’t sleep very well, his cerebral cortex being far too active. It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that he truly began to fall asleep.

Not long after he fell asleep, the child beside him woke up.

Opening his eyes to find himself curled in someone else’s embrace, his entire body stiffened. His hand rapidly reached toward Tang Chen’s neck, settling just a bit below the carotid artery.

Xiao Yi narrowed his eyes, thinking to himself: Currently, I am unable to kill this person.

Slowly, he drew his hand back, lifted the quilt, got out of bed, and walked out of the room.

Left on the bed, Tang Chen opened his eyes and let out a breath—

‘Finally, I can get a good night’s sleep.’

He then closed his eyes decisively.

The initial placement of the protagonists onto the board has concluded. How will Tang Chen manage the growth of this dangerous disciple while keeping his true intent hidden? Let me know when you are ready to continue with the next part of the translation.