Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

Pei Du squatted down in front of Sheng Shixian with his phone in hand. Sheng Shixian's convulsions had subsided, but his lips were still bloodless.

His forehead was covered in cold sweat, his eyes were slightly closed, and his face was contorted in pain as if he was enduring something extremely difficult. "It hurts..."

"Where does it hurt?" Pei Du quickly helped him up. Sheng Shixian's breathing was shallow, and he was covered in sweat.

"My stomach..." Sheng Shixian's voice was barely audible.

"Let me help you to the bathroom. Do you feel like throwing up?" Pei Du grabbed Sheng Shixian's arm. He guessed that the toxins in the roses had affected Sheng Shixian. He had been sleeping downstairs for the past two days and might have inhaled the toxic fumes without realizing it.

Sheng Shixian used the momentum to bury his face in Pei Du's chest, and he carefully smelled Pei Du's scent, which was familiar yet slightly unfamiliar.

Sheng Shixian lowered his eyes, pressing his face against Pei Du's skin through the fabric, and continued in a low, hoarse voice, "It hurts..."

Pei Du frowned. He touched Sheng Shixian's damp arm and found that his chest was also soaked. Pei Du then touched the back of his shirt... which was surprisingly dry.

Pei Du was taken aback. He quietly ran his hand down Sheng Shixian's back and found that apart from the front being soaked with sweat, the back of Sheng Shixian was completely unaffected.

Pei Du: "..."

A large portion of the water in the glass on the table had been spilled by someone.

Pei Du looked down by the light and saw that Sheng Shixian was still wearing his pants as usual. He knew he had to take care of his injured right leg after falling off the sofa, so he put a blanket under his right leg to prevent his injury from getting worse.

"It hurts..." Sheng Shixian was still groaning without any real illness.

"Sheng Shixian, your appendicitis has flared up again." Pei Du's grip remained firm, his expression unchanged, as he helped Sheng Shixian to his feet. "I'll schedule an operation for you; I'll remove your appendix tomorrow."

Sheng Shixian stood frozen in place: "..."

Pei Du glanced at him indifferently: "It's a minor surgery, it won't hurt, you can just close your eyes and it'll be over."

Sheng Shixian took a couple of steps and suddenly felt weak. He sat back down on the sofa, his hands stiffening for a few seconds before he moved them from his lower abdomen to the side.

Sheng Shixian: "...No need."

Pei Du stood in front of him, and upon seeing this, he chuckled: "Why? Aren't you in quite a bit of pain?"

Sheng Shixian lowered his head, his forehead still completely wet with wisps of hair, and his voice sounded dry: "It doesn't hurt."

"Think it over carefully. I'm doing this for your own good." Pei Du leaned against the table, his gaze seemingly materializing as it fixed on Sheng Shixian's lower abdomen. "Really, it doesn't hurt?"

"No." Sheng Shixian wrapped himself in the blanket, lay on the sofa with his back to Pei Du, and stared ahead with a gloomy and unreadable look in his eyes.

He couldn't help but start picking at the surface of the leather sofa under the covers, making strange hissing sounds intermittently.

Pei Du was speechless for a moment. He lifted a corner of Sheng Shixian's blanket and said to him, "I'll change you into some dry clothes. You'll sleep upstairs with me tonight. How about that?"

Sheng Shixian stopped destroying the sofa abruptly. He hesitated for a moment, then turned over, his expression a mixture of uncertainty and wariness.

"Do you want to stay? If not, then stay downstairs," Pei Du asked.

Sheng Shixian stared at Pei Du for a while, then slowly got up from the sofa.

Why didn't you say so earlier? You made him waste all that effort.

Sheng Shixian grabbed Pei Du's arm, keeping the distance between them and not getting any closer. He then decisively used his other hand to support himself with his cane and moved forward.

There are at least twenty or thirty steps from the first floor to the second floor. Sheng Shixian's right leg was injured and he had difficulty walking, so he slowly made his way forward while holding onto the stair railing.

Pei Du asked him on the way, "Don't you need me to carry you?"

"No." Sheng Shixian refused decisively. He leaned on his cane and walked up the stairs step by step on his own.

Only he himself could feel the growth of his flesh and blood. Every step was agonizing, but every activity along the way was accumulating energy for his recovery.

Sheng Shixian glanced at Pei Du out of the corner of his eye. Pei Du walked casually and slowly, always lagging behind Sheng Shixian by one or two steps, in case Sheng Shixian lost his footing and tumbled down.

Sheng Shixian withdrew his gaze; he was going to walk ahead.

Pei Du followed behind Sheng Shixian. With nothing else to do, he casually recorded the time it took Sheng Shixian to walk upstairs: eighteen minutes and forty-six seconds, not even twenty minutes yet.

Sheng Shixian used to take more than fifteen minutes to walk from the sofa to the bathroom, but now he can climb stairs much faster.

Pei Du thoughtfully marked the time it took to travel.

Pei Du's room was at the very back of the second floor. After his parents passed away, he lived alone in the villa.

Pei Du used to live in the laboratory most of the time when he was studying. He only moved here after he got sick. It was empty and he didn't even bother to hire bodyguards or nannies. He just installed more than a dozen cameras in the house.

Even so, some people can still tamper with his house.

Pei Du took out his key and opened the door. He turned on the light and went inside with the other cane that Sheng Shixian had thrown down.

Sheng Shixian paused for a few seconds before entering the room. He limped inside, his dark eyes intentionally scanning the scene inside.

Pei Du's room was simple, with no special decorations. There was a desk, two chairs, a bed, a laptop on the desk, and a glass of cold water standing next to it.

Sheng Shixian stayed inside for nearly four or five minutes. He looked up at the light on the roof, which was so bright and dazzling that it seemed to cast double images.

Sheng Shixian frowned slightly. Without saying a word, he suddenly turned around and walked towards the door, leaning on his cane.

Pei Du turned around when he heard the voice: "What's wrong?"

Sheng Shixian had already retreated to the doorway. He covered his mouth and nose and said in a muffled voice, "It stinks."

Pei Du: "...What?"

Sheng Shixian took another step back and emphasized, "Stinky, come out."

In a split second, Pei Du understood what Sheng Shixian meant. Sheng Shixian had an extraordinary sense of smell, and there might be something in his room that was the same as the bouquet of roses below.

They even have them in his room?

Pei Du blinked. He always locked his room before leaving, and the cameras in the hallway, lobby, and even inside the room were all on. Pei Du had never seen a stranger enter his room.

No strangers...

That means they're someone we know.

Pei Du's Adam's apple bobbed as he quickly composed himself, preventing his emotions from showing.

"It's alright, let's go to another room." Pei Du took out all the documents and books from the room, closed the door, and went to another room not far from his own.

The room looked like it hadn't been used for a long time; a thin layer of dust covered the door. The lock was also different from the others—old and rusty—and Pei Du had to use quite a bit of effort to open it with the key.

Sheng Shixian stood at the door. The door was ajar, and he could see the blurry outline of something in the light that pierced through.