The Poor Little Thing Is Surrounded by Perverts

Bai Qi always felt as though he were living inside a transparent web.

Beyond the web lay entirely different worlds, but a pair of eyes, identical in every way and brimming with obsession, watched him through every gap. Like vines winding around a dead tree, like tides swallowing a lone island, those gazes burned with feverish warmth yet left him chilled to the bone. Even breathing felt suffocating, like inhaling rust.

In one world, he was a canary imprisoned in a golden cage. The warmth of his keeper’s fingertips always carried a sickening possessiveness. When they stroked his wrist, they left red marks like brands that would never fade. “Qiqi, this way, you’ll never leave me.”

In another time and place, he was prey watched from the shadows. A silhouette always lingered outside his window. Trinkets still warm to the touch would mysteriously appear in his desk. Eyes followed him from the corner of an alley, silent and frenzied, like a beast lurking in the dark, waiting to devour him whole.

Sometimes, he had a seemingly gentle partner by his side. They took care of everything for him, but whenever he tried to reach out to the world beyond, they quietly severed every connection, smiling as they said, “I’ll protect you.” Yet behind their eyes lurked an unquestionable desire for control, shrinking his world into a cage for two.

No matter which world he found himself in, Bai Qi was like a lamb lost among wolves, swept up in different forms of madness. The feelings called “love” were the heaviest shackles to him, a poisoned honey. Again and again he tried to escape, only to fall into an even deeper abyss, his cries for help drowned out by the other person’s tender yet terrifying whispers…