Supremely Talented Tyrant

"I don't have many friends because they find me difficult to approach, and I don't want to be friends with them either. But for some reason, I don't dislike you, and most importantly, you're GAY, so I think we could become friends," Qin Bing said, her eyes filled with hope as she looked at Hao Jian. She felt relaxed around him, unlike around normal people, and didn't feel the need to pretend.

"What kind of explanation is that?" Hao Jian said with a wry smile.

"Is that not okay?" Qin Bing looked down, disappointed.

"Of course not, okay then, I'll be your sister. But when we're at school, you have to keep my being GAY a secret. I don't want to be judged," Hao Jian said, actually because he didn't want to be identified as gay since he wouldn't be able to enjoy the adoring gazes from the girls anymore.

"That's great, why don't you stay at my place tonight? The first thing a bestie should do is share a room," Qin Bing said with a happy smile.

"Isn't that unnecessary?" Hao Jian was both amused and troubled. How would he explain this overnight stay to Shu Ya?

"What, you don't want to? Or were you just lying to me before?"

The smile on Qin Bing's face disappeared as if blown away by a gust of wind, leaving her expression cold as she stared at Hao Jian.

"Of course not, I'm just worried it might inconvenience you," Hao Jian said, feeling like crying without tears. Women, oh women, why must you be so fearsome.

"Then it's settled. We'll go out for dinner tonight and then buy some snacks to watch movies at home," Qin Bing said excitedly.

She had always been lonely, craving friendship but too afraid to take the first step, and now she had finally made her first true friend, one could only imagine how happy she was.

In the quiet of the night, having a close friend to watch movies and eat snacks with was her greatest wish.

Hao Jian also could sense the melancholy in Qin Bing's simple request and couldn't bring himself to refuse.

"Okay, but I'm buying double, and you're paying!" Hao Jian added, even though he didn't really like snacks, it was simply to appease Qin Bing.

"No problem!"

Qin Bing was smiling, but Hao Jian clearly saw her eyes glistening with tears of joy.

It was a relief when evening finally came, and after school, Hao Jian and Qin Bing sneaked out the back door, with Hao Jian quickly getting into Qin Bing's car.

"Did anyone see you?" Qin Bing asked nervously.

"No, I was very discreet," Hao Jian nodded earnestly, then realized something and said:

"Hey, wait a minute, why are we acting like we're having an affair? We didn't do anything wrong."

Qin Bing rolled her eyes, "Are you dumb? The other students don't know you're GAY. What would they think if they saw us together all the time?"

Hao Jian scratched his head, dazedly nodding, "That makes some sense."

"Makes sense, right? Now get in the car quickly," Qin Bing said irritably.

"Oh." Hao Jian obediently got into the car.

Qin Bing took Hao Jian to her favorite hotpot restaurant, where the per-person cost was four hundred, featuring all sorts of seafood, all of it high-end.

As soon as Hao Jian entered, he became the center of attention, mainly because he ate so much. He looked frail and thin, yet he single-handedly devoured over twenty plates of seafood, like a starving ghost reincarnated.

Qin Bing's expression was strange, "Why do you eat like you're a starving ghost reincarnated? Haven't you eaten seafood before?"

"Where I used to live, we didn't have these things," Hao Jian said without lifting his head.

"No way, these are very common seafood, aren't they? Where did you use to live?"

Qin Bing couldn't comprehend. Weren't oysters and lobsters common everywhere? Hao Jian actually said they didn't have such things where he lived. What kind of remote backwaters did he come from?

"Red Zone," Hao Jian replied.

"Red Zone? What kind of place is that? Is it in our country? I've never heard of it," said Qin Bing, who had been the top geography student in her university class, yet she had never heard of such a place.

"The Red Zone is abroad. It's an uninhabited area, or rather, it should be called a battlefield. Some countries prefer not to wage war domestically, so they tend to decide battles there. Also, some countries conduct scientific experiments there; the initial development of the atomic bomb by the USA took place there."

Hao Jian answer while he polished off another five or six plates.

"No way, you've been on a battlefield?" Qin Bing exclaimed in utter surprise.

"Yeah, I used to be a soldier," Hao Jian nodded.

"A soldier?" Qin Bing grew more curious about Hao Jian and asked, "But aren't soldiers supposed to be very manly? Aren't you a woman? How did you switch from straight to gay?" Discover hidden content at My Virtual Library Empire

"Sexual orientation has nothing to do with being manly. Even the manliest men can turn gay," Hao Jian quipped casually.

"Okay then." Qin Bing nodded, half-convinced, but her curiosity got the better of her as she asked:

"So based on what you said, that place must be desolate. What did you eat there?"

Upon hearing this, Hao Jian suddenly stopped his hands.

Seeing this, Qin Bing's expression stiffened and she asked uncertainly, "Did I say something wrong?"

Hao Jian gave a bitter smile, shook his head, and then smiled nostalgically:

"In that place, there was hardly any normal food available. We ate bark if there was bark, roots if there were roots. If there were neither, then we'd hunt lizards, snakes, scorpions, and such for wild meat. With some luck, we might even catch a wild chicken."

"But if none of these things were there, then it was horrendous, because there would only be one type of thing left to eat." Hao Jian looked at Qin Bing, his expression turning somewhat sinister.

"What?" Qin Bing asked, suppressing the unease in her heart, her face tense as she watched Hao Jian.

"That would be eating human flesh," Hao Jian said calmly.

Qin Bing, however, gasped in shock. Cannibalism? Such a horrifying notion, could that really be true?

"But don't worry, they were the ones who ate, not me. So I was always in a state of not dying from hunger but never fully satisfied. Now that I finally have a normal life, how could I shortchange myself?"

Hao Jian chuckled, appearing very philosophical.

But to Qin Bing, that smile was filled with sorrow.

The truly sorrowful part about Hao Jian wasn't his experiences, but the optimistic attitude he maintained in the face of them.