Chapter 31: You are such a bad man

“Ah…… it hurts so much……”

The girl suddenly reddened her eyes, tears rolling down like beads from a broken string, her voice laced with a sob.

“Liu Wangjiang, let go quickly, my hand…… my hand is going to be crushed by you……”

She struggled, red marks already blooming clearly on her wrist.

But Liu Wangjiang didn’t loosen his grip; instead, his other hand shot up abruptly, clamping down hard on her neck.

“Who are you?”

the man demanded in a low, grave voice.

The sensation of suffocation hit her, her face flushing crimson, yet she still gazed at him with reddened eyes, her voice coming out in broken gasps.

“I…… I am Qiqi…… the Qiqi you like……”

“That…… the one who cut ties with her girlfriend, who doesn’t like women anymore…… the one who just wants to be obedient, compliant, and submissive to you…… Lu Qingqi…… don’t…… don’t you like me like this?”

His deep purple pupils contracted sharply!

At that moment, the tears in the girl’s eyes suddenly stopped.

In the next second, she actually smiled at Liu Wangjiang, her smile carrying a eerie knowingness, completely unconcerned with the hand on her neck that could prove fatal, as if all her earlier fragility had been an act.

“You really want him to be like this, don’t you?”

Her voice was terrifyingly calm, laced with the certainty of someone who had seen through his heart.

“A pretty girl, a girl who won’t like women anymore, your very own canary wife, belonging solely to you.”

Liu Wangjiang’s hand on her neck paused, a flicker of complexity flashing in his deep purple pupils, ultimately turning into a low, admitting rumble.

“You’re right.”

But his gaze remained as sharp as a blade.

“But who exactly are you?”

The girl smiled even more radiantly, tilting her head back slightly to meet his eyes, enunciating each word deliberately.

“I am the Lu Qingqi from your heart—the one you crave most, the ideal one, the one you anticipate most.”

Liu Wangjiang’s fingers tightened fiercely, only to release in the next instant; the sudden shift in pressure made the girl cough violently, clear finger marks reddening on her neck.

Unfazed, she tilted her head halfway.

“Obedient, compliant, cute, adorably dazed, submissive, adoring, lustful.”

“You don’t like a Lu Qingqi like that?”

“Haven’t you always yearned to turn him into this?”

“Haven’t you always anticipated molding him into such a canary wife?”

“Or are you just a bad man who says one thing and means another?”

The girl’s figure suddenly dissolved into pale white mist, reforming in the next instant right in front of Liu Wangjiang.

Her eyes curved upward at the corners, her voice like honey-dipped poison, or the devil’s temptation.

“I can turn Lu Qingqi into the version you desire most~ With eyes only for you, liking only you, your obedient little canary, dependent on you…… she’ll have all the traits you love.”

“Sign this breeding contract~ He—no, she—will belong to you~”

The girl’s slender jade finger traced circles in the air, pale white mist gathering to form a sheet of paper marked with black text—“The Eight Major Rules of the Canary Breeding Manual”—followed by a blank signature area.

[Tool], meaning the canary is a tool to satisfy the master’s psychological and physical needs;

[Pleasure], meaning the canary’s purpose for existence is to please the master.

[Submission], meaning the canary forever relies on the master’s commands;

[Violation], meaning the canary accepts the master’s discipline to any degree;

[Possession], meaning the canary is completely possessed by the master, from body to soul.

[Denial], meaning denial of any emotional needs beyond the canary; the canary’s life value lies in devotion to the master, constantly improving herself to fulfill the master’s demands;

[Obligation], meaning when treating the canary, the master shall fulfill the responsibilities of breeding and must not abandon the canary; beyond that, all else is permitted.

Eight major rules, seven benefits, one responsibility—how could it not seem like a surefire profit?

Mist swirled around the girl, casting her pupils in an eerie silver-white glow, as if reflecting someone’s desires.

“I refuse.”

Yet what awaited her were just these three words, dropping into the air.

The girl tilted her head and stepped half a pace closer, her mist-formed fingertip nearly pressing against his chest, seemingly puzzled.

“Why? Isn’t getting it all at once better? It saves you all that scheming, and spares her……”

“It has to be by my own hand.”

Liu Wangjiang looked up, his deep purple pupils burning with stubborn fire.

“Her every fall into femininity, every struggle, even every unwilling complaint—they all have to bear my mark.”

“I want to turn him into a girl with my own hands!”

“I want the result, and I want the process!!”

“You’re such a bad man! Do you know how many hurdles there are to turning him into what you want?”

“From that stubborn, chuunibyou temper, squeezing out gentleness and virtue; from liking fair-skinned, beautiful, long-legged big sisters to liking you as a man; from a petty rich second-gen, twisting out an elegant, noble little princess…… which step isn’t a torment? Why skip the shortcut and insist on the hard way?”

“There will be accidents in the process, maybe he’ll run away, hate me, resist, even try to kill me—but I’ll chase him down, drag him back, tie him to my side.”

“I’ll turn him from ‘he’ into ‘she’ bit by bit!!”

As his words fell, the girl gazed at him quietly for a moment, as if seeing a familiar face etched deep in her memory.

Suddenly, she burst out laughing with a “pfft.”

“As expected of you, a born bad man.”

“Perhaps. For someone like me to be liked by him—fortune and misfortune, the misfortune probably outweighs the fortune a bit.”

“You’ve got some self-awareness.”

The girl pouted, the mist around her gradually thinning.

“Consider yourself cleared.”

With those words, she dissolved into wisps of mist, carried away by the wind into the woods; a few strands of pale white mist slipped through the man’s collar, burrowing into his chest.

“Oh, right—”

A clear female voice echoed through the woods, laced with mischievous amusement.

“The Mother’s Drowning Spring really exists, you know—want to find someone to test it on?”

Liu Wangjiang snapped back to his senses.

The setting sun hung slantwise on the branches of an ancient tree, casting his shadow onto the leaf-strewn ground.

He stood under an old tree, the bamboo basket in his hand heavy, filled with freshly picked seehand qing mushrooms, their caps edged with damp soil.

Where was the mist around him?

Only the familiar mountain path wound downward; his phone vibrated in his pocket, the screen lighting up, signal bars full.

As if…… everything that had just happened was an illusion.

“An illusion, huh……”

Liu Wangjiang stood dazed in place for a moment, then looked down at the seehand qing in the basket.

Clearly, he had already been on his way down the mountain, yet now he stood under this old tree again, still picking mushrooms, as if the descent had never happened.

As he pondered, a mountain breeze swept through with a chill; he instinctively pulled at his shoulders—then froze.

The coat on his body was gone.

The man lowered his gaze to his bare shoulders, his fingertips grasping at empty air, then murmured lowly.

“It’s real……”

That wasn’t an illusion.

Before the murmur faded, his nose caught a faint scent; mixed with the wind came faint sounds, like someone calling out softly.

Liu Wangjiang followed the noise, parting waist-high grass, and spotted Lu Qingqi beside a moss-covered boulder.

He lay curled on the ground, eyes tightly shut, brows slightly furrowed, lips moving repeatedly, murmuring indistinctly.

“Hungry…… so hungry……”

Seeing the boy in this exhausted, unconscious state, Liu Wangjiang bent down and scooped him up horizontally.

The youth’s body was very light, his breath carrying the scent of orchids, warm against his arm.

He had intended to head straight down the mountain to find a doctor, but after two steps, that clear female voice exploded in his mind—“The Mother’s Drowning Spring really exists, you know—want to test it yourself?”

The man’s steps halted; his arms tightened around Lu Qingqi, then he set down the basket of seehand qing, shifting to a steady princess carry.

He looked up toward the nearby woods, where pale white mist still lingered, as if beckoning.

Without the slightest hesitation, Liu Wangjiang carried the person in his arms and strode right in.

Though he still didn’t fully understand what had happened, he knew clearly: this was an opportunity.

An opportunity to turn Lu Qingqi into a girl.

An opportunity that wouldn’t require his Qiqi to lie on an operating table, to transform this unruly young dandy into an obedient, adorably dazed girl, to realize his long-planned scheme in one step.

As for whether Lu Qingqi was willing……

Liu Wangjiang glanced down at the unconscious figure in his arms, a faint arc curving his lips.

That misty girl was right—he was indeed a bad man.

And a bad man never asked if his target was willing when he wanted something.