The card flew straight at Zhao Jizhe, barely missing his face. Li Xuan turned and walked away. To the stunned waiter, he said, “Check, please.”
“Li Xuan!”
Zhao Jizhe scrambled to his feet, knocking over the chair behind him with a loud crash. He watched Li Xuan’s retreating back—calmer than ever. And because of that, more terrifying than ever.
The card in his hand felt like a death warrant. The day he was released from prison, Li Xuan had given him a card. And now, he was using another to sever ties.
It was a clear message: Li Xuan’s patience had reached its limit. If Zhao Jizhe clung on any longer, he would really take his life.
And Li Xuan was capable of doing it.
Zhao Jizhe didn’t want to leave. But he didn’t want to die either.
He didn’t understand how things had suddenly turned like this. It wasn’t the first time he had followed Li Xuan. Why was this the time he had crossed the line? What exactly was Li Xuan’s bottom line?
There was no time to think about it now. Zhao Jizhe dug his nails into his palm. “I… I can go back to the internet café…”
“No.” Li Xuan kept walking. “That’s no longer an option for you.”
“I’ll go to the hospital!”
Just as Li Xuan was about to step out of the restaurant, Zhao Jizhe shouted, “Didn’t you say this is an illness? I—I’ll go to the hospital… Find a hospital… I’ll go.”
Li Xuan frowned slightly and stopped. “…You’re really insane?”
“The psych ward is fine too. You said I’m sick, right? I’ll get treatment.” Zhao Jizhe was shaking all over, either from agitation or fear. “…You’ll come see me, right? Other patients have family who visit them…”
Li Xuan looked at his manic expression, his face darkening. He rubbed his temples. He knew what he should do—shatter all of Zhao Jizhe’s illusions and send him as far away as possible.
“Nineteen—”
“Shut up!”
Li Xuan lifted his gaze to Zhao Jizhe.
He had said it countless times before: he didn’t owe Zhao Jizhe anything. And if they really had to settle accounts, it was Zhao Jizhe who owed him.
But Li Xuan didn’t want to keep count.
Sheng Min’s judgment was right—he hated being accused. There were no debts between them, so what right did Zhao Jizhe have to criticize him? Li Xuan knew the root of this contradiction all too well.
Like those medicines, like that bowl of wontons…
Did the medicine from that small clinic really work?
Could that bowl of wontons, without a single trace of meat, really be nourishing?
Li Xuan didn’t believe it. He didn’t think he was going to die, and Zhao Jizhe’s self-imposed caretaking was a real burden to him.
But regardless of the intention behind it, he had been forced to accept this favor.
And then there was the scar on Zhao Jizhe’s arm…
“Nineteen…”
Li Xuan didn’t answer. Earlier today, when he was on the phone with Skinny Monkey, just before hanging up, he had asked if Skinny Monkey wanted to take on a big job. At that moment, the thought had already taken root. But when Skinny Monkey eagerly waited for him to continue, he had hung up.
The sky was pitch black, heavy with thick clouds—no stars, no moon.
Not far away, the amusement park stood in silence, surrounded by layers of high walls, looking like a ghost town in the darkness. Those walls had always been there, even before the park was built.
The office was eerily quiet. Li Xuan walked to a door and knocked lightly on the one beside it. “Come out.”
“You’re not going home yet?” After half a minute, Qi Boyuan opened the door. A shadow flew toward him. He raised his hand to catch it—it was the tracker.
“Resolved?” Qi Boyuan raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t seem that difficult. I thought there was something extraordinary about him since you tolerated him for so long.”
“Next time, don’t pull this kind of trick again.” Li Xuan leaned against the window, lighting a cigarette.
Qi Boyuan wasn’t surprised. He sat across from him. “When did you find out? Don’t tell me it was the moment I gave it to you—that’d be too embarrassing for me.”
“This model was released in the U.S. this June. It’s hard to buy domestically. The program inside was also modified to continuously transmit a false location in the opposite direction…” Li Xuan exhaled a puff of smoke. “Where did Zhao Jizhe learn about something like this? Where did he buy it? After he planted it on my car, who picked it up?”
“You’re unreal… But I swear I didn’t tell him to buy it. If he were a normal person, he wouldn’t have taken the bait.” Qi Boyuan, having done something like this for the first time, wasn’t exactly righteous about it either. He cleared his throat. “I did it for the company. I wasn’t trying to hide it from you—I just wanted to get this mess over with quickly so we could focus on growing the business…”
“Good thing you didn’t say it was for me.”
“I’d be disgusted doing something for you… Maybe for your big-shot celebrity boyfriend.” Qi Boyuan adjusted his glasses. “I just wanted to push the issue forward. If something really went wrong, Sheng Min…”
“That’s enough.” Li Xuan shot him a look. “Stop bringing up Sheng Min. He won’t be in danger. You just want me to see how much Zhao Jizhe being at the company has been driving you crazy…”
“Zhao Jizhe is a bad seed—he was bound to cause trouble sooner or later. Don’t think I’m overreacting by insisting on kicking him out. You may not care about the company, but I do. But fine, I won’t use Sheng Min to get you to act—you can just dock my salary for a month… Honestly, you caught me off guard today. I wasn’t even prepared to talk about it yet…”
“That much is obvious… You handle the finances, so dock your own pay if you want.” Li Xuan played with his lighter as he spoke. He knew why Qi Boyuan had done it and didn’t intend to press further. He changed the topic naturally. “We have investor meetings tomorrow morning, right?”
“Yeah, two of them. The ones you thought were promising. Another round of negotiations—one at nine, another at eleven.” Qi Boyuan checked the time. “It’s getting late. Need me to reschedule?”
“No need. I’ll make it in time. I’m heading home. You should, too.” Li Xuan stood up.
“I’ll send over the previous negotiation records later.” Qi Boyuan got up as well, then casually asked, “Just confirming—the bomb is defused this time, right?”
Li Xuan smirked. “A bomb explodes no matter where it is.”
“What do you mean…” Qi Boyuan’s hand stiffened. “He’s not coming tomorrow, right? If he does, it’ll be because you let him. But now that you’ve changed your mind—”
“Why would I have ever agreed in the first place?” Li Xuan asked, his voice low, as if questioning himself.
Qi Boyuan was stunned. “How would I know?”
“He won’t be coming back,” Li Xuan shook his head. His profile was cold, his voice even colder. “Not tomorrow anyway.”
That coldness lingered even when he arrived home. But when he opened the bedroom door, he was greeted by warmth, like a spring breeze.
Maybe it was because he had suffered from the cold as a child, but Sheng Min was sensitive to low temperatures. It wasn’t even winter yet, and he had already switched to a thin coral fleece blanket. When he slept at night, he always curled into Li Xuan’s arms. Now, without Li Xuan there, he slept alone, his tall frame curled up like a child.
A small night light glowed beside the bed. Li Xuan walked over, placed the flowers he was holding on the nightstand, and gently pulled the book from Sheng Min’s hands. The moment he moved it, Sheng Min’s fingers instinctively tightened around his.
“You’re back? …I was waiting for you, but I fell asleep.”
“You don’t have to wait for me everytime.” Li Xuan kissed his fingertips. “How was today? Weren’t you going to tell me?”
“It was great… The professor gave me a lot of guidance. I’ll be going back tomorrow.” Sheng Min’s eyes, peeking out from the blanket, sparkled with a mix of nervousness and determination. “I’m going to audition. No matter what happens, I believe I can do a good job.”
“You will,” Li Xuan said, gazing at him with genuine warmth. For the first time that night, he smiled sincerely. “Get some sleep. I’ll shower and come to bed.”
He said he was going to leave, but he held onto Sheng Min’s hand, unwilling to let go.
Sheng Min looked up at him, puzzled.
“Let me hold you for a bit,” Li Xuan suddenly said.
In every moment of exhaustion, all he wanted was to hold him. That was already the most he would allow himself to show weakness.
Sheng Min studied his face for a moment before sitting up and wrapping both arms around him tightly.
“What’s wrong?” After a while, Sheng Min pressed soft kisses to his ear and asked gently, “Did you miss me?”
“I missed you. It’s been nineteen hours since I last saw you.” Li Xuan tightened his hold around Sheng Min’s waist, then muttered, “I smoked.”
Sheng Min leaned in close to Li Xuan’s neck and sniffed. “The smell’s gone. You smoked at the company?”
“Yeah, I was talking to Qi Boyuan for a while.”
“How many did you smoke?”
“Two.”
“You’ve hit your quota for the week. But since you were honest about it…” He kissed Li Xuan’s cheek. “I’ll give you a reward.”
“You’re just taking advantage of me.” Li Xuan smiled. “Looking for an excuse. I bet while I was asleep, you stole quite a few kisses.”
“Who stole kisses from whom?”
“I stole kisses from you.” Li Xuan held his waist and kissed his forehead. “I do it openly.”
Sheng Min pretended to glare at him but ended up laughing. He touched Li Xuan’s eyes, and with his other hand, his fingers lightly hooked onto the stray hairs at the back of Li Xuan’s neck. Gently, he asked, “You’re troubled by something, aren’t you?”
“No.”
“Liar… You’re not allowed to lie to me.”
“It’s nothing.” Li Xuan was silent for a moment, then ran his hand over Sheng Min’s slender shoulder blade. “Zhao Jizhe is gone.”
Sheng Min blinked. He had never actually seen Zhao Jizhe before. He had only pieced together a vague image of him and sensed that Li Xuan’s attitude toward him was strange.
“Gone where?”
“The hospital.”
“He’s sick?”
“He’s never been well.” Li Xuan shook his head.
Sheng Min hesitated before asking, “Is that a good thing that he’s gone?”
“It won’t make things worse.” Li Xuan smiled faintly. “It was bound to happen sooner or later.”
“Really?”
Sheng Min leaned back a little and looked into his eyes, but Li Xuan’s dark gaze held no discernible emotion.
“Really.” He simply opened his arms toward Sheng Min. “Let me hold you a little longer.”
They looked at each other for a moment. Li Xuan’s expression didn’t change; he even smiled slightly. So Sheng Min, without a word, leaned in to embrace him again.
