The button was pressed, confirming the password lock with a brief unlocking sound.
Xu Qi opened the door, and as soon as he stepped onto the carpet in the entrance hall, he heard deafening canned laughter coming from the living room. He instinctively frowned, adding a hint of impatience to his already sullen face.
Turning past the wine cabinet in the dining room, he saw his mother, Xu Zhiya, slouched on the sofa with one leg tucked under the other, laughing along with the variety show on TV.
Xu Qi walked to the sofa, picked up the remote control, and turned off the television. He was more than a head taller than his mother. With her sitting and him standing, the sense of him looking down on her was even more pronounced. “Why are you here again?”
“I came to make you dinner,” Xu Zhiya looked up at him. “The food’s gone cold. Why are you working overtime so late every day? Your body can’t take it if you keep going like this.”
“I’ve told you many times, I can take care of dinner by myself,” Xu Qi looked at her. “I’ve also said that this is my house. You need to let me know before you come.”
“Aren’t you hungry?” Xu Zhiya stood up. “Sigh, the meat needs to go back into the pan, and the pumpkin will have to be steamed again.”
Xu Qi’s head started buzzing again. It was as if there was an unbridgeable chasm between him and his mother—a pair of neighboring islands, the closest in the world, yet forever unable to communicate.
“By the way, the new housekeeper you hired is pretty good,” Xu Zhiya said as she walked toward the kitchen. “The house is as clean as new. There’s not even a speck of dust under the bed.”
This meant she had already been in the bedroom. Xu Qi lost all desire to continue the conversation. He returned to the study, shutting out the sounds from the living room.
The light illuminated the balcony outside the floor-to-ceiling window. He stood in front of the glass, glanced at the balcony tiles, and found that his mother wasn’t exaggerating. It really was exceptionally clean.
After the company got on track, he worked overtime almost day and night. Coming home after such an exhausting grind, the last thing he wanted to see was a messy house. So, after moving here, the first thing he did was ask around for a reliable cleaning service.
Other residents in the building had recommended a company to him, so he scheduled daily cleaning. Usually, when a housekeeper came over, someone stayed at home to prevent valuable items from going missing. But when Xu Qi was at home, it was not working hours, so he simply sent the door lock code after booking the appointment. The house was fully covered by surveillance cameras—what could possibly go wrong?
Judging by this first experience, the residents here had good taste.
Xu Qi looked at the freshly polished balcony railing and noticed his phone vibrate. He took it out and saw a message from the ‘Worry-Free Housekeeping Company’, asking him to rate today’s service. He hesitated for a moment, then clicked the link. It wasn’t every day he found a satisfactory housekeeper—it was worth keeping tabs on them.
Above the common star-rating and review section, the name of the person providing this service is written: Employee ID 058, Jiang Yu.
Xu Qi stared at the name for a long moment, not even noticing that his hands were sweating as he gripped the screen.
Is it a common name? It’s not a rare one.
He suddenly turned around, walked to the desk, powered on the monitor, and opened the surveillance footage. At two o’clock in the afternoon, a figure appeared at the door, crouching down to put on shoe covers.
The next second, the person looked up, and Xu Qi saw a familiar face.
He slowly leaned back in his chair, his fingers gradually releasing the mouse. His mind went blank for a moment.
Then, like a beam of light cutting through the darkness, memories surged forward.
Back then, his name had still been Qu Ruiheng.
The summer before he entered middle school, his mother, who had been fretting about school district housing and Beijing residency, suddenly told him excitedly that from then on, he would be attending a private school called Xingcheng Secondary School.
“All the teachers have PhDs, even some returning from overseas!” Xu Zhiya beamed with joy. “Study hard, and in the future, you can go abroad and earn a foreign degree!”
He asked where the money for his schooling would come from, and his mother said mysteriously that he would know later.
A few days later, Xu Zhiya brought him to meet a middle-aged man and told him to address the man as ‘Uncle’. Standing beside the man was a boy around Xu Qi’s age, whom she told him to call ‘Brother’. He stared at the father and son for a long time, and finally called him brother.
“When I mentioned your schooling, Uncle Zhou immediately called the principal of Xingcheng,” Xu Zhiya said as she fiddled with her newly permed curls. “Now even our store manager speaks to me so politely. Uncle Zhou also said he’s planning to set me up with a storefront.”
He saw the sparkle in his mother’s eyes and knew she was once again thinking of the shop on Nanchang Street that had been wrecked by others.
Before moving into that man’s house, Xu Zhiya had warned him: “Be enthusiastic, speak sweetly, and don’t go around with a sour face. He might become your dad someday.”
“Are you two married?” he had asked.
Xu Zhiya frowned briefly but quickly smoothed it out. “Since he has a big family and a lot of money, it’s normal for him to think about it for a while,” she said.
Just like countless times before, “This time he’s definitely a good person,” or, “This time there’s definitely hope.”
But there wasn’t.
The real estate developer did not marry Xu Zhiya; she and her son were merely awkward outsiders borrowing a place to stay, but Xu Zhiya remained confident about tomorrow.
And he was not.
From the moment he entered Xingcheng, he fell into a long and unending hell. The new brother attended the same school, and his identity soon became known to everyone. Like a dull fish-eye among a string of pearls, he was quickly singled out and became the target of everyone’s ridicule.
He became the ball boy, the waiter, the cleaner—serving tea and water to his peers in the same classroom. When he went home, Xu Zhiya would ask how the new school was, and he replied that the classmates weren’t very friendly.
“They’re all pampered kids; it’s normal for them to have bad tempers,” Xu Zhiya said, glancing toward the study on the second floor. “If it’s nothing serious, just bear with it. Don’t get into fights like before. These are all privileged young masters and ladies. If you hurt someone, it’d be a big deal.”
Xu Qi looked at his mother.
Just bear with it.
But the things he had to endure only kept piling up.
One evening, he was having dinner on the first floor, eating a little longer than usual. Just as he was about to head back to do homework, he heard the sound of the door unlocking. Then the owner of the house—his ‘uncle’—stumbled in, his steps unsteady, reeking of alcohol. It was obvious he was drunk.
The man told him to pour a glass of water. So he poured a glass from the thermos, brought it over, and placed it in front of the man. The glass bottom clinked sharply against the coffee table.
Suddenly, the man stood up and slapped him across the face: “Who are you showing your disdain to?”
He glanced at the man, but even that look was taken as a provocation. The man picked up a sandalwood ornament from the coffee table and threw it at him. He didn’t make a sound, turning around and raising his arms to protect his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his new brother leaning coldly against the second-floor railing, watching him without a word.
Before going to bed, he checked his back in the mirror. A bruise the size of a bowl had formed.
Just bear with it.
A year passed like this, and it was so long that it seemed to have consumed all the patience and happiness of a lifetime.
In September of his second year of middle school, there was a baseball club competition. He wasn’t a member but was roped in to handle logistics. His new brother asked him to fetch a bat from the activity room. As soon as he entered the room, he heard a bang. When he turned around, the door was already shut.
He walked over to twist the lock, but even after unlocking it, the door wouldn’t budge. Something on the outside was clearly blocking it.
He called for help, but no one answered.
Time passed slowly, and an unsettling thought crept into his mind: Would he die here? Locked away until his body became nothing but bones, until every trace of his existence vanished from the world?
Then, suddenly and without warning, water began flooding through the gap under the activity room door. The torrent was fierce, quickly rising past his calves, his thighs, and soon reaching his shoulders. In the next moment, the water would flood into his nose. He couldn’t breathe. He was going to die, he was definitely going to die.
The water submerged his head, and he clung tightly to the doorknob, his voice becoming smaller and smaller.
And then, just as he was on the brink of suffocation, the door opened.
In an instant, the water vanished without a trace.
Blinding sunlight streamed through the open door, making him squint. He squinted his eyes and saw a boy standing in front of him.
When the other person saw him, he was stunned for a moment, then suddenly broke into a smile.
“It’s you,” the boy said. “What are you doing here?”
Sitting on the floor, Xu Qi waited for his eyes to gradually adapt to the stimulation of the backlight and the face of the person in front of him to become clear.
The face was fair and thin, with a slightly pointed chin, and black eyes that never tired of smiling.
He squinted in the light and said: “Bian Yu?”
“It’s Jiang Yu,” the other person corrected him.
The last time they met was back in their hometown. At that time, the murder case on Nanchang Street had just settled, and his father was imprisoned for 35 years. Everyone looked at him with something in their eyes, except Jiang Yu. Jiang Yu always stuck close to him, asking what he was doing. He said he was reading. Even after answering once, Jiang Yu kept asking, as if reading was some incomprehensible thing. Once, when he got too annoyed, he gave Jiang Yu his bookmark.
Jiang Yu was so happy that his eyes curved into smiling crescents.
That smile made him feel a brief moment of happiness. But not long after, he realized that Jiang Yu smiled like that at everyone.
Every time he saw Jiang Yu’s smile, he felt a stifled anger building inside him. This anger grew day by day, until it finally erupted during a fight. He fought four boys, leaving them bruised and battered, and then he took one of their utility knives and slashed it across his own back.
In the office, he insisted that he was the one being bullied. Xu Zhiya pressed on the wound on his neck, and blood still seeped through her fingers. In this frightening scene, the parents sitting across from him were left speechless.
He never felt that this had anything to do with Jiang Yu, even though those boys called Jiang Yu ‘idiot’; the main reason was that they looked down on him.
Later, Jiang Yu transferred to another school. He never thought they would meet again at a school in Beijing.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
“My brother brought me here and said I should take a look at the school,” Jiang Yu looked at him. “They’re all playing basketball with their friends on the field. Why are you here alone?”
“I don’t have friends,” he said.
Jiang Yu thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up. “How about I come to study here? I can be your friend!”
He looked at Jiang Yu without responding for a long time. Then Jiang Yu reached out his hand toward him.
“I’m soaked,” he said.
Jiang Yu looked around and felt very strange: “There’s no water here ah?”
He didn’t move, so Jiang Yu walked over and held his hand. He looked around as sunlight poured down from the skylight in the activity room.
He thought Jiang Yu was just talking casually, but he didn’t expect that a few days later, the teacher really brought Jiang Yu into the classroom, saying he was a new student who had transferred to their class and had difficulties with studies, so everyone should help him more.
Idiot. He silently chanted in his heart. Idiot, idiot, idiot.
This idiot actually came. Did he really think he could help him with anything?
The idiot really couldn’t do anything. However, ever since Jiang Yu transferred in, Xu Qi’s situation suddenly improved.
Because Jiang Yu became the new target.
Compared to him, Jiang Yu’s foolish reactions were obviously more amusing. Even the simplest lie could trick Jiang Yu into running in circles. They made Jiang Yu wait at the school gate for a nonexistent ‘guest lecturer’, carry over forty jins of bottled water from the supermarket to the third floor, and at the International Cultural Festival, they made Jiang Yu a target, pelting his face with wooden arrows.
Even so, Jiang Yu still seemed happy, as if nothing in the world could upset him.
So they bullied him even more, as if determined that Jiang Yu didn’t deserve to be happy.
And Xu Qi silently watched it all.
Having finally escaped the center of the storm and gained a moment of respite, he hoped it could last a little longer.
But Jiang Yu remained completely unaware. Jiang Yu was neither aggrieved by his silence nor frustrated by his alienation. Jiang Yu still, as he did when he was younger, enthusiastically and actively sought to talk to him.
During the break, Jiang Yu would run to the back row, squat beside him, and ask, “What book are you reading?”
Before he could answer, Yang Tianhua asked with great interest: “You two know each other well?”
Several familiar faces turned to look at him, including his new brother.
His heart sank. Damn it. The focus of their attention couldn’t shift back to him. He needed to stay invisible, but Jiang Yu was like a lighthouse, drawing everyone’s gaze.
“Stay away from me,” he pushed Jiang Yu away coldly, “Don’t talk to me.”
Jiang Yu’s eyes widened in confusion, but he didn’t say anything, only lowered his head and walked away.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
After that, Jiang Yu really didn’t bother him anymore, and he successfully returned to being the silent bystander.
Until one physical education class, when the teacher organized a soccer match between their class and the neighboring class. During the fight for the ball, a classmate tripped him. He fell onto the grass, clutching his leg, sweat the size of beans rolling down his forehead.
The teacher told the classmate to help him to the infirmary, but the student crossed his arms and said, “Teacher, the game’s not over yet.”
Another boy chimed in, “Isn’t there someone who’s not playing?”
The teacher turned toward the edge of the field. From the start of the game, Jiang Yu had been sitting there, as no one wanted him on their team. “Jiang Yu,” the teacher said, “take him to the infirmary.”
Jiang Yu hesitated as he ran over, lingering two meters away and pacing back and forth. Xu Qi gritted his teeth, enduring the pain for as long as he could, but Jiang Yu still didn’t move.
“What are you doing?” He was almost going crazy with pain, “Come here quickly.”
Jiang Yu let out an ‘Oh’ and finally walked up to him. Xu Qi rested his arm on Jiang Yu’s shoulder, using his weight to stand. Jiang Yu was slightly shorter than him, and his hair carried the warm scent of sunlight.
Slowly, they made their way to the infirmary. After examining him, the doctor applied an ice pack and told him to lie on the bed in the lounge to rest for a while.
While the doctor asked about his injuries, Jiang Yu stood behind him, twisting his hands, looking awkward. Xu Qi lay down, and Jiang Yu initially sat on the edge of his bed. But as soon as he touched the sheets, he got up again and moved to sit on another bed.
There were only two of them in the lounge.
Jiang Yu looked down, fiddling with the sheets, occasionally stealing glances at him before quickly lowering his head, as if he thought he wouldn’t notice.
“Why can you still smile?” Xu Qi asked.
Jiang Yu ignored him.
“Do you really think they’re your friends?” he asked again.
Jiang Yu pressed his lips together tightly and looked out the window.
“Can you even hear me?”
Jiang Yu slowly turned his head to look at him. “Oh, can I talk to you now?”
He felt as though something had hammered his heart hard.
“You twisted your ankle, and that’s when I can talk to you?”
He opened his mouth, but in the end no sound came out.
Then Jiang Yu suddenly seemed to think of something, his eyes lighting up: “Then you can just twist your ankle every day.”
He stared at Jiang Yu in disbelief. Jiang Yu looked at him with a serious expression.
He was a man who held a grudge very deeply, and he had remembered this cursed wish for many years.
Of course, the curse didn’t work. His sprain healed quickly, which was fortunate because he needed the ability to walk to collect photographs. It took him a lot of effort. Sometimes, he had to go without food or drink for an entire day, waiting outside the home of a woman he didn’t know.
He never thought that this had anything to do with Jiang Yu. Although they bullied Jiang Yu, the main reason was that they had also bullied him.
After the photo incident, Jiang Yu dropped out of school, and Xu Qi moved south with his mother to live in another city. He got into university, founded a company, secured investments, and returned home with success and glory. But for some reason, he felt a vast emptiness in his chest. Whenever memories of his painful childhood resurfaced, the place where his heart used to be would whistle and be filled with the sound of wind.
Watching the familiar face on the screen, he suddenly stood up, rushed out of the study, and almost bumped into Xu Zhiya.
“When did you get here?” he asked. “Have you seen the new housekeeper?”
“No,” Xu Zhiya said. “Why?”
He stared at the gleaming floor as his breathing gradually steadied. “It’s nothing,” he said. “I want to see him.”
Xu Zhiya looked puzzled. “Why do you want to see him?”
Xu Qi suddenly paused.
Yes, he thought. Why did he want to see him? What exactly did he want to do?
The sound of the wind didn’t stop for a long time.
The author has something to say:
Jiang Yu: The name has become a little simpler!
Author: The original name was too ugly.
T/N: another update at 0000 later!
