Eight Brilliant Ideas

“No. It’s for you, darling.” Bai Wei tightened his expression.

Lucen reached for a bodysuit and tugged at it. “This doesn’t seem to be my size. It should be yours, shouldn’t it?”

“No! That’s just a freebie! Don’t touch it!”

After getting the key, Bai Wei’s patience with Lucen was gone. He yanked the bodysuit out of Lucen’s hand with force. The material snapped back, landing over his face… When he finally peeled it off, a lace choker with a bell had gotten tangled in his hair. As he wrestled with these items, Lucen stood there, indifferent.

Seeing Lucen’s attitude only made Bai Wei angrier.

“You just stand there and won’t help at all?” he demanded, only realizing after he spoke that his words sounded oddly petulant.

Heavens… Bai Wei had never asked anyone to help him with such simple things. When Lucen stepped forward, Bai Wei immediately barked, “Stay right there, don’t move!”

Lucen replied, “...You told me not to come closer.”

Bai Wei ignored him, untangling the lace himself. Finally, he shoved everything back into the bag and tossed it into a corner of the cloakroom, turning to see Lucen standing there, dressed in the new clothes he’d bought him. Lucen, over six foot three, was indeed made for wearing clothes. The silk deep-red shirt stretched across his chest muscles, paired with a cream jacket and patterned tie, making him look strong, languid, and effortlessly stylish.

Those eyes, however, were fixed intently on Bai Wei… Following Lucen’s gaze downward, Bai Wei realized that as he knelt to stuff the gift bag away, his shirt had ridden up, exposing a strip of pale waist.

—He hadn’t come to help earlier, but now he was staring at his waist. That was Bai Wei’s first reaction, and he wanted to curse.

His second reaction: the waist?

He’s staring at my waist?

Suddenly, Bai Wei realized that his earlier bravado had been a mask for feeling threatened. After a year of marriage, he was struck by the realization that Lucen was a man more powerful than himself, and perhaps had intentions toward him.

Lucen had once seemed gentle, cumbersome, even inorganic in Bai Wei’s eyes. He’d looked at Bai Wei with focused attention, but that gaze was like an antique dealer admiring a beloved treasure—appreciating its beauty, doubting anyone could care for it properly, and so determined to seize and hoard it with patience. This was the first time Bai Wei saw desire in Lucen’s eyes—desire directed at him, fierce and predatory.

“Can I touch you now?” Lucen asked.

Before Bai Wei could react, Lucen gripped his waist and carried him to the sofa.

By the time Bai Wei thought to resist, it was too late.

“I really like the clothes you bought me, darling.” Lucen wrapped his arms around Bai Wei’s waist, kissing him devoutly—his pale cheeks, trembling lashes, pink ears. “I used to think it was enough just to keep you at home… but you’ve brought me so much joy. No one has ever bought me clothes, cooked dinner, been so good to me…”

He lifted Bai Wei’s hand, pressing kisses to his rounded nails, graceful knuckles, snowy wrist traced with blue veins, as if proposing marriage. “Is there anything you want? Or somewhere you’d like to travel? Whatever you desire, I can take it and give it to you.”

His words were passionate and sincere, as if he’d suddenly discovered his master was a wolfhound. Bai Wei stared at him, dumbstruck, forgetting to resist. It felt like drowning—every pore soaked in humid heat, sinking deeper in a winter hot spring…

Yet, to a wolfhound, the master can also become prey.

Lucen continued his kisses. Bai Wei let out a hoarse cry and reached out to push Lucen’s head away.

Lucen caught Bai Wei’s hand, his eyes burning with dark flames. “Don’t refuse me, will you?”

In that instant, Bai Wei felt as if he’d been shocked awake by cold water. “No…”

The atmosphere froze.

After a pause, Lucen released his hand. “Why not?”

Bai Wei hurried to find an excuse. “I think… it’s too soon.”

“But we’ve been married a year,” Lucen said, confused.

A year! Indeed, they had been married a year! Bai Wei grasped at another excuse. “We haven’t had dinner yet.”

“Oh…” Lucen accepted. “True, it would take a lot of energy.”

“I’ll put the dirty clothes in the washer. You change out of those new clothes, put on your loungewear, put them in the washer, then make dinner.” Bai Wei, still pinned under Lucen, started issuing orders. “Do you understand?”

Lucen finally got off him. “Alright. I bought groceries earlier; they’re still in the car. I’ll go get them soon.”

Bai Wei breathed a sigh of relief, then heard Lucen say, “Wait, look at this.”

…

…………

“You—what are you doing!”

“I just thought, since the opportunity is rare, do you like this shape?” Lucen smiled, earnest and straightforward.

As Lucen held his hand, not knowing where to touch, Bai Wei finally covered his eyes with his other hand and muttered, “It’s… fine.”

“Is it fine, or are you satisfied?” Lucen pressed on, attentive to feedback like a diligent employee.

This time, Bai Wei was so embarrassed that even his fingertips flushed pink. “Satisfied.”

When Lucen let go, Bai Wei slid out from between him and the sofa like a startled cat, grabbed the clothes Lucen had dropped, and dashed downstairs.

Lucen lingered upstairs, savoring Bai Wei’s scent. Bai Wei stopped in front of the washing machine. He glanced around, his gaze pausing on a leaking pipe.

A leaking washing machine—normal. Washing machine not working, check the plug—normal. Outlet short-circuited, a wire trailing into the puddle, conveniently electrocuting the person doing laundry… wasn’t all of this perfectly normal?

After all this, Bai Wei felt no peace. He sat on the sofa, tracing crosses over his chest. He thought Lucen wasn’t human, and that size was certainly not something any human could endure.

Until Lucen came downstairs, carrying laundry, but still wanting to kiss Bai Wei in front of the sofa. At that moment, Bai Wei could finally summon his calm performance. He smiled sweetly. “Honey, let’s finish the laundry first, then we can kiss.”

“Oh, alright.”

Lucen carried the clothes to the laundry room. Bai Wei listened secretly outside the door. He heard Lucen call out, “Darling, there’s a huge puddle on the floor.”

“I saw it earlier,” Bai Wei pretended his voice came from the living room. “Maybe the pipe’s leaking. Honey, could you kneel down and take a look? If the pipe’s broken, just replace it.”

“Okay.”

Bai Wei closed his eyes halfway. The first thing he heard was the crackle of electricity, then the sound of the circuit tripping.

Darkness fell, as if something else had fallen too.

In that moment, Bai Wei knew at least that tonight, he wouldn’t have to sleep with Lucen.

“Honey? Honey? Are you still there? What happened?”

Bai Wei fumbled in the darkness, not heading for the laundry room. He grabbed a flashlight from the corridor and a wooden stick from the backyard. The flashlight lit the uncertain path ahead, and he tapped the empty hallway with the stick. “Honey? Honey?”

“Honey, why won’t you answer, I’m so scared—” He pushed open the laundry room door, mid-sentence, and saw Lucen crouched on the floor.

Something was tossed aside—a piece of wire.

Bai Wei swallowed.

Lucen turned to look at him, his handsome features made sinister by the flashlight’s glow. “Did you see this when you came to do the laundry?”

Bai Wei opted for feigned ignorance over arguing. “Huh? Honey, what thing?”

“This wire,” Lucen said.

Bai Wei shook his head blankly. He saw Lucen’s expression grow solemn.

“I saw the puddle and avoided it. Honey, was the wire above the outlet?” Bai Wei asked. “Did you get shocked?”

He reached to hug Lucen, but Lucen pushed him away.

The moment Lucen pushed him, Bai Wei’s mind flashed with “I’ve been found out.” Yet as Lucen pushed him away, Bai Wei felt a strange tingling—almost as if Lucen still carried a charge. He leaned back against the wall, suddenly inspired, and began to sob.

“Good thing you walked around the water, or you’d have been electrocuted,” Lucen said, stomping the wire in a fury. “This useless washing machine, this damn wire, ugh, so careless!”

“But you weren’t electrocuted, honey.” Hearing Lucen’s anger, Bai Wei cried even harder. “And you pushed me, like it was my fault you got shocked.”

Lucen hadn’t expected Bai Wei to cry. He panicked, seeing Bai Wei’s tear-streaked face in the dim flashlight. He desperately wanted to hug him, but remembered he might still carry a charge, so he blurted, “Wait for me,” and ran out to the garden.

To ground himself with a shovel.

As soon as Lucen left, Bai Wei’s face went cold. He shone the flashlight at the outlet—charred black.

Was Lucen just lucky, or had the Lucen who crawled back from the grave become a monster?

When he heard Lucen’s footsteps returning, Bai Wei started crying again. Lucen found his wife in the corner of the laundry room, sobbing like a pear blossom in the rain, and hurried to scoop Bai Wei into his arms.

Bai Wei couldn’t dodge in time, the stick he’d meant to use on Lucen landing on his own foot, twisting his face in pain.

Lucen carried him princess-style back to the living room. In the flashlight’s beam, Bai Wei’s eyes glistened with tears, his lips pale, looking like a suffering princess. As Lucen cradled his face, soothing him, he awkwardly realized—

He was aroused.

Bai Wei noticed too; his expression shifted from pitiful to “this monster can get turned on anywhere, anytime.”

Lucen watched repair videos, then went back to fix the pipes and outlet. Bai Wei wrapped himself in a blanket in the living room, staring out the window. By now, Lucen had shown signs of wanting intimacy three times today; this was an undeniable warning sign.

How had things come to this?

Before their engagement, they’d been polite and distant. On their month-long honeymoon, they’d acted like traveling companions. After Lucen’s death, when Bai Wei fled Naples, he’d gone three months without Lucen finding him. When Lucen finally brought him back, settling in Snow Mountain Town for half a year, Lucen had never shown any need for intimacy. Bai Wei had even thought Lucen was like him.

But now, Lucen seemed to have discovered a new world, suddenly realizing “Bai Wei is someone I can have.”

Why? The only difference was Bai Wei’s desire to kill his husband. Just because he wanted to kill Lucen, Lucen started calling him darling, just because he wanted to kill Lucen, Lucen wanted to sleep with him. Was that reasonable?

Bai Wei decided he could no longer ignore the risk. He needed an excuse to solve this once and for all. To achieve his goal, Bai Wei didn’t mind sleeping with Lucen a few times. But if Lucen wanted to do it several times a day, what then?

If Lucen wanted to do it several times a day, how was Bai Wei supposed to get out of bed, walk around, and set traps?

Finally, Lucen emerged from the laundry room, the lights coming back on. He held his tools and said, “I couldn’t completely fix the washing machine… I need to go to Blackport City nearby to buy some parts. It’s the closest big city to Snow Mountain Town.”

Blackport City…

Bai Wei couldn’t hide the flicker of distaste on his face. He turned away, searching for an excuse. “I heard the security there is terrible. Honey, you need to be careful when you’re out.”

It is terrible, so if you die there, all the better.

“It’s only Blackport City. It’s not like I haven’t been to more dangerous places.”

Lucen was unconcerned.

“More dangerous places?” Bai Wei snapped his head back, alert.

Lucen realized instantly he’d said too much. Bai Wei’s “fiancé” was a suave overseas elite; the most dangerous place he could have gone was a viral outbreak in Silverpa.

Luckily, Lucen was quick-thinking. He cupped Bai Wei’s face and kissed him, smiling. “Do you know how I handle streets with delinquent youths hanging around?”

Bai Wei: …

Why kiss while talking? He glared at Lucen, who continued, “I just drive straight there, only get out in front of the shops, buy what I need, then leave—stay in the car the whole time… Darling, are you angry?”

Stay in the car… Bai Wei suddenly had a brilliant idea.

He looked at Lucen with newfound gentleness. “Honey, I am angry. Your tone just now sounded like you didn’t take my warning to heart. Blackport City is dangerous. If something happens to you in the city, what would I do? Safety must always come first, and you can never be too cautious.”

“So, you’re angry because you’re worried about my safety…”

“But your method is reasonable. Since that’s the case, tomorrow you must stay in the car the whole time, all right?” Bai Wei urged again.

Lucen was delighted. For the first time, someone cared about his safety, waited for him at home. Unconsciously, he felt a sense of responsibility. Before bed, he paced around, looking at the townhouse, suddenly feeling that, from the perspective of “always returning home no matter where you go,” this place was too strange and too empty.

Since buying it from the previous owner, the furnishings had hardly changed. It felt like someone else’s home, not his own. It was time to buy things from Blackport City to make it feel like “his home.”

All night, Lucen thought about what to buy for the house.

Thanks to this, Bai Wei avoided “bodily hardship” by coincidence. He spent the night cautiously, realizing Lucen wasn’t planning anything with him. In the middle of the night, after confirming Lucen was sound asleep, Bai Wei slipped out of bed and crept to the garage.

Incomplete combustion of car fuel produces carbon monoxide. A simple exhaust channel carries it out of the car. Block that channel, and high-concentration carbon monoxide can kill a person in six minutes.

Bai Wei would never tamper with the brakes—that was too obvious, too crude. Snow Mountain Town had several gravel roads. A bit of gravel blocking the exhaust was perfectly reasonable.

After finishing everything, he crept back to bed, closed his eyes, feeling satisfied, thinking tomorrow would bring good news.

He didn’t expect that the car returning home wouldn’t be the one parked here.