“Good boy.” He put the cigarette back in his own mouth and then took Xiaokai’s chin in his hand, tilting it up and then from left to right, examining every angle of him. “What would the world say,” he asked softly, “if they knew how filthy their perfect fu’erdai was? How greedily he takes cocks in any hole he can?”

Xiaokai did not deem this with an answer; Hu Yongzhu had just as much to lose if he exposed anything about the List. Even worse, Xiaokai was just one heir to his father’s company—they could write it all off as a scandal and the Liu family wouldn’t lose anything. But the Hu family? If the world found out that he’d been fucking Liu Xiaokai since Xiaokai was sixteen? They would lose everything.

“Hm? Nothing to say to that?”

Xiaokai lowered his gaze. “For three more hours,” he said, “I belong to you. Do what you please.”

Hu Yongzhu huffed and tossed his face aside. “Boring. When did you get so boring?”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry. I liked it more when you cried.” He sucked on his cigarette for a moment longer, regarding Xiaokai with a curled lip. Then he said, “Lay on your back.”

Liu Xiaokai laid on his back.

“Legs apart.”

He put his legs apart.

“Didn’t think I would have to do this.” Hu Yongzhu’s voice had grown a little fainter—he’d moved away, but without lifting his head Xiaokai couldn’t tell where. The sound of a zipper. “I brought it just in case, but I was hoping you’d grown enough that you could just satisfy me with your body.”

No—

That bag that Hu Yongzhu had brought in, it hadn’t been clothes? Involuntarily, Xiaokai shuddered.

“Oh, scared now? That’s good. You haven’t forgotten.” He appeared in Xiaokai’s view again, right next to the bed, with a black silk blindfold in one hand, a blood-red ball gag in the other. “Which one?”

The blindfold at least meant he could cry out, beg him to stop—but he wouldn’t listen anyway, and Liu Xiaokai knew from experience how terrifying it was to await pain in the darkness. “Gag.” His voice was hoarse. “Please, sir.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want to miss your tears.” He dropped the blindfold on the nightstand and then fastened the ball gag into Xiaokai’s mouth. It tasted like rubber and forced his jaw open to a point that it was uncomfortable. He could already feel his saliva gathering at the corners of his lips. “So pretty,” Hu Yongzhu said. He disappeared for a moment, came back with something that jingled. “I brought handcuffs too. I trust you don’t mind?”

Xiaokai tried to say no, he did mind—but the gag muffled his words into groans, and Hu Yongzhu caught his hands with ease, attaching them to the posts of the bed.