The scene outside Universal Studios reminded people of the Spring Festival travel rush.
At eight in the morning, the area outside the archway was already crowded with heads thronging together, fully showcasing the population density of a major metropolis. The blue globe bearing the Universal logo was surrounded by tourists taking photos, which immediately made Xu Qi abandon the idea of taking a photo at the entrance.
Jiang Yu didn’t care about ceremonial gestures at all; his heart was set on going to Hogwarts Castle.
The Harry Potter section was located in the northeast corner of the park, and Xu Qi quickly found it by following the arrows on the map. The flags of the four houses fluttered in the wind in front of the castle, while Hogsmeade Village was rustic yet cozy, with honey-colored stone cottages, grass-roofed taverns, and shops selling all kinds of strange magical items. Every spot reminded people of scenes from the silver screen and the pages of books.
As the most popular check-in spot in the park, Diagon Alley was already filled with tourists wearing wizard robes.
If any of them had done their research in advance, they would have known to rent these outside the park, as every shop inside carried the unmistakable leek scent.[footnote]A metaphor for something that exploits consumers, implying that the shops inside the park overcharge or take advantage of visitors.[/footnote]
But Xu Qi didn’t have the time, and Jiang Yu didn’t know how to do research. He looked at the Harry Potter fans holding magic wands and his eyes filled with envy.
Xu Qi grabbed his wrist and led him into a shop, where there were wizard robes, scarves, and ties from all the different houses. Jiang Yu marveled as he circled around the clothing twice before finally picking up a green wizard robe and handing it to Xu Qi.
“This suits you,” Jiang Yu said. “You must be from Slytherin.”
Since Jiang Yu was so certain, Xu Qi put on the robe. Jiang Yu then picked up a scarf. Xu Qi cooperatively lowered his head to let him drape the scarf around his neck, even though the temperature was already around 20°C at noon and he was starting to sweat.
After dressing up his companion, Jiang Yu took two steps back, nodded in satisfaction, and then proceeded to pay.
“Wait,” Xu Qi stopped him. “I’ll pay.”
Jiang Yu firmly said: “I have money.”
Although Xu Qi knew that the salaries of many domestic workers weren’t low, this robe and scarf together cost over a thousand, a price that was merely brand tax—flashy but impractical. How could he spend Jiang Yu’s hard-earned money?
And it was for him!
Xu Qi wasn’t enthusiastic about Harry Potter or its related IPs. He had only entered this store because he thought that the two of them wearing wizard robes could barely be considered couple outfits—though by that definition, all the visitors at the Harry Potter park could be considered couples.
“What about you?” Xu Qi asked. “Which one do you want?”
When Jiang Yu had chosen for Xu Qi, he was as fast as lightning, but when it came to his own turn, he hesitated. After a long pause, he said, “I don’t know.”
He recalled the scene in the first movie where the little protagonists were sorted into colleges. “If the Sorting Hat met me…” Jiang Yu tried to simulate it in his mind, “It would probably sweat in anxiety if it was on my head. How would someone who doesn’t fit into any house be sorted?”
Then, he shook his head. “No, that’s not right,” he said. “I wouldn’t even receive an acceptance letter.”
Xu Qi looked at him, stayed silent for a moment, then walked to the store entrance and asked the staff. The staff smiled and took an item off the shelf.
Xu Qi took it and turned back, walking up to Jiang Yu and placing it on his head.
“I’m the Sorting Hat?” Jiang Yu glanced up.
“You are the most insightful person I’ve ever met.”
While Jiang Yu was concentrating on thinking, Xu Qi had already paid. Jiang Yu was dragged out of the store by him amidst his protests. They took pictures in front of the castle’s spires, in front of the Hogwarts Express, and in front of Hedwig’s cage. Xu Qi handed his phone to other tourists, asking them to help take photos. He draped his arm over Jiang Yu’s shoulder, and Jiang Yu leaned in, his hair brushing his nose—still that warm, familiar scent.
He was often surprised by how easily Jiang Yu trusted him. As long as he said it was for a photo, Jiang Yu didn’t mind being held in the arms of another man.
They took photos for a while, then Jiang Yu suddenly seemed to wake up, broke free from Xu Qi’s arm, and ran a few meters away.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s so unfair,” Jiang Yu said. “All the photos are taken with your phone.”
Xu Qi didn’t say anything.
Jiang Yu took out his own phone. “Just stand there and don’t move.”
Sometimes he stood right in front of Xu Qi, sometimes he stood diagonally opposite him, and sometimes he half-squatted, trying to find the most suitable angle with his limited sense of aesthetics.
Fortunately, Xu Qi looked good no matter how he was photographed. Jiang Yu took several shots, put his phone away, and revealed his little fang.
“Now I have your photos,” he said.
Xu Qi looked at Jiang Yu. Every action and movement of this person made his heart race, even this inexplicable excitement.
“Let’s go buy butterbeer,” Xu Qi said.
“I’ll pay,” Jiang Yu said, and immediately ran to join the line. He picked one slushie and one hot beer so that he could drink two different kinds. After hearing his plan, Xu Qi felt relieved. Being a simple person is great; not minding the suggestion of sharing a straw, nor caring about the price difference between drinks and clothes.
They found a bench in a small square in Diagon Alley and sat down. The rest area in the magical world was no different from others, with a square table and two benches.
They sat across from each other, drinking a beverage called butterbeer, which had no alcohol at all. Jiang Yu drank half of the hot drink, turned his head to look around, and suddenly said, “I think I’ve been here before.”
Xu Qi swapped his drink with Jiang Yu’s. “Do you remember?”
“En,” Jiang Yu said. “Because I came here with my mom.”
Xu Qi looked at the cobbled streets filled with people, and the image of Jiang Yu from over a decade ago appeared before his eyes. Back then, he and his mom might have sat here, and maybe the two of them had each bought a cup of butterbeer.
Nothing had changed, except for the people sitting here.
“Can you promise me one thing?” Xu Qi asked.
Jiang Yu asked what it was.
“Ten years from now, let’s come back here,” Xu Qi said. “Come back to this place.”
Jiang Yu immediately said, “Sure!”
Xu Qi looked at him, feeling a stir in his heart. “Why do you agree to everything I say?”
Jiang Yu pressed his lips together, as if he thought Xu Qi was saying something silly. “Of course,” Jiang Yu said. “As long as I can do it.”
At that moment, Xu Qi knew he was standing at a crossroads. He looked at the defenseless little fool across from him and chose silence.
When Xu Qi returned to that villa, a fine drizzle was falling, an unusually humid day in Beijing.
Over a decade ago, he had lived here and endured the hardest year and a half of his life. He looked at the familiar bonsai, the familiar porch, and raised his hand to press the doorbell.
It was a while before he heard the sound of the lock turning, as if the person inside wanted to deliberately delay the arrival of fate.
The door opened, revealing a familiar face. The changes brought by time were cruel; the wrinkles etched into the skin and the puffiness of the cheeks had distorted the original features. Xu Qi stared for a moment before confirming that this was indeed the man who had once thrown a paperweight at him.
He wondered if the man remembered him. After all, during that year and a half, the man had barely looked at him directly. But judging by the growing surprise on the man’s face, he hadn’t forgotten him.
Good.
“What are you here for?” the man asked.
Xu Qi raised the document folder in his hand. “Delivering the acquisition agreement.”
“What does that have to do with you?”
“Mr. Wei is my investor. I sometimes help him handle some matters,” Xu Qi said. “He entrusted this task to me.”
The man still stood at the door without moving.
“Go in and sign,” Xu Qi said. “I’m busy too.”
The man tightened his grip on the doorknob, then turned and walked inside. Xu Qi followed him into the living room. The man plopped down on the sofa, and on the coffee table in front of him were a bottle of alcohol and a glass. Xu Qi stood in front of the television, glancing around the room.
“You’ve redecorated,” he said.
“Where’s the agreement?” The man stretched out his hand to him.
Xu Qi tossed the document folder over. “The pen’s inside.”
He watched as the man signed his name at the end of the agreement. From this moment on, Aoyuan Real Estate officially changed ownership, becoming part of another group’s business chain.
After signing, the man threw the pen aside. Xu Qi picked up the agreement, double-checked it, and put it back into the folder.
“Have you applied for bankruptcy protection?” Xu Qi asked.
The man glanced at him and said, “You are very proud now ba?”
Xu Qi stared at the man expressionlessly. He wasn’t the one who acquired the company, but he was the one who reported the issues with building materials to the relevant authorities, causing Aoyuan’s projects to halt. Coupled with tightening policies, the result was a broken capital chain and a plummeting market value—that was indeed his doing.
“Why are you here today?” The man twitched the corner of his mouth. “To watch a joke? To flaunt your success?”
“What else?”
The muscles in the man’s cheeks twitched. “I sent you to school, fed you—how did I wrong you? Ungrateful wretch…”
Suddenly, Xu Qi walked to the coffee table, grabbed the wine bottle and smashed it against the table edge. Amber-colored liquid exploded with the sound of shattering, countless glass shards glittering like silver.
He seized the man by the collar and pinned him down on the sofa, the sharp glass pressing against his neck.
“Why did you hit her?” Xu Qi looked down at him, veins bulging in the hand gripping the bottle neck. “How dare you hit her?”
The man wanted to cry for help, but the sharp sensation of the glass against his skin was too real. In the end, all he did was open his mouth soundlessly.
“She had nothing left, left her home and came all the way here. She finally found a glimmer of hope. How could you destroy it like this?” Xu Qi’s grip on the man’s collar tightened further. “How could you deceive her? How could you give her hope and then take it away? What gives you the right?!”
“You…” Beads of sweat formed on the man’s forehead. “Calm down!”
“You think I endured all this time because you’re an adult?” Xu Qi let out a faint laugh. “I should have done this the first time you laid a hand on me. Then you wouldn’t have had the chance to hit her…”
“What?” The man’s face turned red. “I hit her?”
“Don’t tell me she broke her own arm!”
“Her arm?” The man bellowed. “So what if she broke an arm? She gave me a concussion!”
Over a decade ago, in the upstairs study, on an ordinary afternoon, he was on the phone at his desk when he saw the woman he was living with walk in with a strange look on her face.
One of her hands was hidden behind her back, and her gaze was filled with a fury he had never seen before. He wondered if she was thinking about marriage thing again? The woman was beautiful, but coaxing her was always such a hassle.
He ended the call, ready to come up with some excuse to brush her off, but then he saw her walking toward him. Before he could say a word, the woman raised her hand, and then a riot baton hit him directly on the head.
“You actually dared to hit a child?” The woman didn’t stop after the first strike; the baton swung again. “Are you even human?!”
He took another blow, his head buzzing, and then felt a sharp pain in his back.
This woman is crazy!
“What’s wrong?” the woman said. “You’re scared now that you’ve met someone who fights back?”
Of course, he wasn’t going to just stand there and take a beating for nothing. After being hit a few more times, he grabbed the baton, trying to take it away from her hands. The woman was in a hysterical frenzy, her strength astonishing, so he couldn’t even force her to let go at first.
However, there was a difference in strength between men and women, and he finally got the upper hand. The woman crashed into the bookshelf, breaking her arm in the process. The corner of her beautiful mouth was split open, leaving a large gash.
The fight didn’t last long; soon, the sound of police sirens came from downstairs. The man didn’t know who would meddle enough to call the police, but later he realized that it was the woman who called the police herself.
When the police arrived, blood was dripping down his forehead while the woman had a bruised face and nose, and was holding her arm and screaming in pain.
In front of the police, the two insisted on their own stories. The woman insisted he had started the domestic violence, and she was merely acting in self-defense.
His account, of course, was the opposite—and he was even telling the truth.
After going to the hospital, he underwent a full examination for head trauma and lay in bed for two days. After being discharged, he spread the word that he would definitely find someone to kill that woman.
The killing order was eventually abandoned. Before the bandages had even come off, the woman fled with the child, changed their names, and lived in a distant city for many years before returning to this place.
And this story, after circling back and forth through the years, had only now reached the ears of another party involved.
Xu Qi put down the shattered bottle.
He tried to imagine the scene of his mother charging into the study with the baton. It was probably much like that fight he had in elementary school.
He cut his back with a utility knife, and his mother had taken the blow that fractured her arm.
They were always like this—killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of their own.[footnote]to inflict damage on the enemy while one’s own side suffers a smaller but comparable level of damage[/footnote]
Perhaps outsiders always had a keen eye.
He was very much like his mother.
