Zhou Yu sat anxiously with two buckets of popcorn in the waiting area at the movie theater entrance. All around were couples, and occasionally girls would cast glances at them that he didn’t even know how to describe—awkward smiles? He felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, thorns at his back. So he put down the popcorn and stood up. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
Li Jinyu picked up his phone from the table and stood up as well. “Let’s go together.”
“What about the popcorn?”
“Leave it here.”
“What if someone takes it?”
“I’ll buy you more.”
“…”
Throughout the movie, Li Jinyu never actually watched it. He kept his head down, playing on his phone, or more specifically, playing the “Jump Jump” game on WeChat. Zhou Yu had played it a few times; the appeal was in the sound effects, particularly the landing sound, which was the essence of the game. But this guy played with the sound off for two hours, and his score had already broken the record on Zhou Yu’s friend circle leaderboard, leaving him speechless. He had never seen such a high score before.
When the movie ended and the lights came on, Li Jinyu didn’t even look up, just followed the crowd toward the exit. Zhou Yu silently followed behind him, anxiously thinking that he seemed to have just come to watch a movie with him. But… but what about Sis? Sis was so good to him, how could he treat her like this?
He thought indignantly.
The movie theater was on the top floor of the shopping mall. The two walked down the escalator, each with their thoughts. Just as Zhou Yu was about to speak up and have a serious talk with this “scumbag,” a clear male voice suddenly cut in from the side. “Li Jinyu!”
“What are you doing here?” Li Jinyu’s voice was cold.
Zhou Yu thought he had encountered a romantic rival and looked up, only to freeze in place.
The entire mall was magnificent, with five floors. The central hall was open, with a crystal chandelier hanging down through two floors. Around it were circular walkways. Two men stood smoking by the railing of the second-floor walkway. When they saw Li Jinyu, their expressions were somewhat mocking, as if deliberately trying to embarrass him: “Old Coach is treating Professor Lu to dinner. Why don’t you go in and say hello? Nobody knows where you’ve been these past few years.”
Li Jinyu responded flatly: “No need. Give my regards to Professor Lu.”
“Come on, after scamming all those students’ parents’ money and leaving Beijing without a word to withdraw from the competition, all these years later, are you still going to be a coward?” The man stood firmly in front of him, refusing to yield.
The bespectacled man leaning against the railing beside him gently advised, “Forget it, Liang Ping. Let him go. Professor Lu might not even want to see him.”
…
After getting out of the car, Li Jinyu went to a convenience store to buy a pack of cigarettes. Standing at the entrance of a small alley, he bent his head to open the package while telling Zhou Yu without looking up, “You go in first. I changed the password to the house. It’s Sis’s birthday.”
“0929?”
“Mm-hmm.”
The light at the street corner was dim and yellow. Fireflies danced under the streetlamp, so quietly that one could almost hear the sound of their fierce collisions and struggles, as if each wanted to be part of this faint glow.
Zhou Yu didn’t leave. He stood there with a dazed expression as if he had seen a ghost. Li Jinyu leaned against the wall, took out a cigarette, and glanced at him. “What’s wrong?”
“I… I think I just saw ‘Master Yinzhen’,” Zhou Yu said.
Li Jinyu was startled and put the cigarette back. “Where?”
Zhou Yu felt the two faces overlapping more clearly in his mind. He stated firmly, “Those two men who were just talking to you. I’m sure it was him!”
“Liang Ping?”
“No, the other one with glasses, the scholarly-looking one.”
“Cai Yuanzheng?”
“I don’t know what his name is, but it’s that scholarly-looking man who was trying to persuade Liang Ping not to argue,” Zhou Yu said. “Who is he?”
Li Jinyu turned away from the wind to light his cigarette. “He was my college classmate. We used to be on a team together for international university competitions.”
During those years, A University had a strong reputation. With Li Jinyu leading the team, they practically swept the entire memory championship world, winning all possible awards both domestically and internationally. However, not long after, this godlike team captain was exposed to a scandal for using the memory palace technique to scam people out of money. Li Jinyu withdrew from the competition without a word, leaving behind a tarnished reputation. Cai Yuanzheng took over as team captain. Li Jinyu kept track of subsequent events; that year, the A University team members were all affected emotionally, and for the first time, their names were absent from the world rankings. That year’s championship went to a South Korean university team.
In fact, at the time, Liang Ping and Cai Yuanzheng had fairly good relationships with him on the team. In Li Jinyu’s impression, Liang Ping was straightforward, while Cai Yuanzheng was polite and refined, always maintaining a balanced, neutral attitude in his dealings with others. Professor Lu was their team coach, and back then, Lu Mingbo favored Li Jinyu and Cai Yuanzheng the most. Later, when Li Jinyu’s scandal broke and he withdrew from the competition, Lu Mingbo was extremely disappointed and heartbroken, sighing in front of everyone, “Jinyu, of all my years, you are the most talented student I’ve ever encountered, yet also the one I find most difficult to mention to others. Fine, go, just go. And don’t come back. Cai Yuanzheng, you’ll lead the team tomorrow!”
And so, the young man never returned.
This May seemed very gentle, Li Jinyu thought as he walked to Lu Mingbo’s home. The wind stretched between two ends—on one end was him, and on the other was Ye Meng. As long as he thought of her being at the other end, no matter how long, dark, or difficult the path, it didn’t seem that hard to walk.
It had been two weeks since they’d seen each other. He wondered what Sis was busy with. In this relationship, from the beginning until now, Ye Meng had always been the one taking initiative. Yet she was also the most clearheaded. She was mature and rational, coaxing him, teasing him, even taking the lead in bed—it always felt like she could withdraw at any moment, regardless of time or place. If it weren’t for Li Lingbai, Li Jinyu would not want to protect her in this manner, because he was afraid that perhaps a month later, Sis’s feelings might truly cool down, and she might realize, ah, so Li Jinyu nothing special after all.
“Are you Li Jinyu?”
A middle-aged woman with a bare face stood in the yard watering flowers. Seeing Li Jinyu outside the fence, she asked hesitantly.
Li Jinyu came back to his senses and greeted her across the yard fence. “Yes, hello, Professor’s wife.”
“Here to see Professor Lu? Come in,” the woman said kindly as she opened the small yard gate. Then she called inside, “Mingbo, your student is here.”
Lu Mingbo came out from the side door of the courtyard house, carrying a birdcage and shuffling along. His eyes showed slight surprise as if he hadn’t expected Li Jinyu to come looking for him. He then turned away and said, “Come in. You go boil some water.”
This courtyard house was rather old and small, not much different from when Li Jinyu had visited years ago. Scattered sunlight shone through the window, casting a slanting beam of light into the study. In the dust-filled room, Lu Mingbo lit some sandalwood incense, waved his hand to extinguish the flame on the match, tossed it into a nearby ashtray, and gestured for him to sit.
Lu Mingbo specialized in history and geography. His desk was filled with globes of various sizes. Lu Mingbo pointed at these globes and asked, “Can you still memorize maps?”
Li Jinyu was dressed in athletic wear, looking exactly the same as he had years ago as if he hadn’t changed at all, still the same young man who had been brought to this home and could recite history and geography facts smoothly. “Yes,” he answered.
Lu Mingbo nodded coolly and said, “You were indeed the most naturally gifted student I’ve ever seen. Are you planning to return to Beijing to develop your career now? Or what?”
The two sat on the sofa. Li Jinyu hunched forward, resting his hands on his knees in a tower-like position, his posture formal and his voice neither humble nor arrogant, but sincere: “Yesterday, I ran into Cai Yuanzheng at the mall. I heard you were having dinner with them. I had some urgent matters at hand, so I didn’t go over to greet you all. But I thought I should still come by and say hello to you since I was quite impulsive and tactless in the past.”
Lu Mingbo smiled gently. “Liang Ping and Cai Yuanzheng told me later that you were back. I figured you didn’t want to see them, after all, you were the captain they trusted and admired the most, and then you dropped everything and left without a word. Anyone would hold a grudge against you.”
“Yes,” he nodded humbly.
Lu Mingbo continued, “Liang Ping is like a child; you don’t need to mind him. But the one you wronged the most was Cai Yuanzheng. Back then, he stepped up in a crisis and shouldered a lot of pressure for you.”
“That’s why I wanted to ask for your help,” Li Jinyu said with a smile. “I’d like to treat Senior Cai to a meal. What is Senior Cai doing now?”
Lu Mingbo said, “That’s fine. I’ll give you his contact information. You two should have a good talk. Yuanzheng is doing quite well in Beijing now. After graduation, he started writing books and has gained some fame. He even won some newcomer awards recently.”
While Li Jinyu was visiting Lu Mingbo, Zhou Yu was returning from the supermarket, carrying two large bags of laundry detergent he had just bought. He turned the corner of the alley and stopped at their front door. In a good mood, he greeted the cat that often perched on their wall to peep at Li Jinyu bathing, “Little pervert cat.”
“Meow—”
Zhou Yu initially thought the cat was cursing at him, but after carefully recalling the entire sequence of events, he realized the cat might have been warning him about someone behind him. He paid no attention to it and was about to punch in the password when he felt a dark shadow suddenly cover his head. Just as he was about to look up, before he could react, something heavy pressed against his waist, and a sharp object was thrust against him. The next second, he was pinned spread-eagle against the cold door, unable to move. From behind came a menacing threat: “Don’t move—”
Zhou Yu looked helplessly at the cat on the wall, his eyes seeming to say, “Will you call the police? Please call the police.”
The cat heartlessly leaped down from the wall with a “whoosh.”
“Open the door,” the person behind him said.
Zhou Yu stuttered, “Y-y-you… don’t pin me down. How can I open the door if you’re pinning me down?”
The person behind him grabbed his head and pressed it against the password lock. Zhou Yu anxiously pressed a few numbers: “Beep beep beep—wrong password.”
“Don’t play tricks,” the man behind him warned.
Zhou Yu complained pitifully, “You scared me so I forgot!”
Zhou Yu felt the knife at his waist beginning to cut into his flesh. He carefully advised, “This clothes isn’t mine, you, you, you, don’t tear it. Why don’t you lift the clothes and press the knife directly against my skin? These clothes reportedly cost twenty thousand yuan. I can’t afford to replace it if it’s damaged.”
“Hurry up!” The man behind him was impatient and hot-tempered.
Zhou Yu’s trembling hands tried again: “Beep beep beep—wrong password.”
No way, when did Li Jinyu change the password again?
Zhou Yu felt his end approaching. Sweat began to seep from his forehead as he watched the man behind him grow increasingly angry. He took a deep breath and said, “Look, don’t get excited. This password lock is connected to an alarm system. If the wrong password is entered three times, it will immediately alert the police. I don’t know that he changed the password, so if you don’t want to bother the police, why don’t I call and ask him?”
“Call him.”
Zhou Yu dialed Li Jinyu’s number. The other end seemed busy with something, and it took a while before he heard Li Jinyu slowly answer. Zhou Yu put the call on speaker, glanced at the man behind him, and said with a trembling voice, “Bro, Bro, did you change the password?”
“Yes,” came the faint response from the other end.
“I can’t get in now…”
“I can see.”
“Huh?” Zhou Yu was stunned.
“I’m watching the security feed,” Li Jinyu’s voice was lazy. “Please tell that gentleman with the AK-47 bayonet beside you that his head is hitting my lantern tassels.”
The lantern was bought by Ye Meng. She said that when moving into a new house, there must be a light burning, even if not for people, it should be left for the gods of the four directions. Maintaining a sense of reverence wasn’t a bad thing.
And so Zhou Yu was taken away.
The laundry detergent scattered all over the ground, the cat jumped back up to perch on the wall, and the lantern tassels continued to sway tirelessly as if nothing had happened.
However, throughout the entire process of Zhou Yu being taken away, Li Jinyu remained on the call with him, reassuring him, “Have you seen TV dramas? It’s probably something like that kind of kidnapping, more or less.”
Zhou Yu: “…”
“If you don’t behave well, you might be killed at any time. They’re capable of anything.”
The man in black beside him reminded, “You can hang up now.”
Zhou Yu’s forehead was covered in sweat. The wind blew, and he felt completely chilled. Li Jinyu added, “Of course, if you behave too well, I might just have them kill you directly.”
Zhou Yu understood exactly what he meant.
This was an overt kidnapping where both sides knew each other’s intentions, as if they had a grip on each other’s weaknesses, seeing whose handheld more chips. Li Jinyu seemed to still be drinking coffee, appearing to politely say “thank you” to a waiter, before casually adding a final reassurance, “Don’t worry too much. Before I negotiate with my mother, they won’t do anything to you. After all, if they make me too angry, they won’t get a penny. Stay strong. Hanging up now.”
At dusk, the sunset poured into the office. The skylight seemed level with the horizon. Outside the building was a tall excavator. Ye Meng leaned against the edge of the desk, gazing silently into the distance, not knowing what she was looking at.
Tai Mingxiao sat in her chair, playing with her globe, and said, “Li Lingbai is holding a press conference at six tonight. She will probably respond to the recent exposé posts and the questions about ‘Chang Zhongding’ flowing overseas. All the media press releases have been prepared.”
Ye Meng took a sip of coffee indifferently: “Just ordinary marketing tactics.”
“But just now, I asked a journalist friend and found something very abnormal in the content,” Tai Mingxiao’s jaw was clenched tightly, his eyes seemingly shooting fire. Ye Meng had never seen him so angry and turned to stare at him. To her surprise, he continued, “The journalist secretly sent it to me. I know it’s somewhat against professional ethics, but she couldn’t stand it either, so she gave me the information in advance.”
“What is it?”
“If nothing unexpected happens, there will soon be a trending topic. The hashtag content is #LiJinyuMotherComplex#.”
Sometimes people are like this—the angrier they get, the calmer they appear. No actions or words can express that urge to tear someone apart. Not ordinary tearing, but wanting to peel the other person’s skin off layer by layer, to see them bleeding profusely, to see them on the verge of death, to see them kneeling and begging for mercy—and even that would not be enough to appease such anger.
Ye Meng calmly picked up her bag and left, but she uncharacteristically cursed, “Fuck, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
The venue for Li Lingbai’s press conference was the Wulin Hotel. Even if Ye Meng drove with all green lights, it would take at least an hour to get there. With all the cutting in and “Murphy’s Law” red lights along the way, it would take at least an hour and a half. She looked down at the time: 4:40. By the time she arrived, the press conference would likely have already started.
Ye Meng drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on the window edge, nervously biting her fingers. Honking sounds continued all the way; not only was she rushing, but everyone else was too. The road was completely gridlocked, and the honking sounds were like the pressure-release valve of a pressure cooker about to explode, screaming frantically.
It was evident that anxiety was contagious. But apparently, passion was contagious too.
The moment after Ye Meng rushed out, Tai Mingxiao also grabbed his car keys and stumbled downstairs, completely lacking his usual poise. He knocked over a new young female colleague, sending papers scattered everywhere like snowflakes. He didn’t stop to pick them up but hurriedly pressed the elevator button repeatedly.
Tai Mingxiao watched the descending elevator numbers with an empty, dizzy mind. He just felt he should do something.
If Ye Meng dared to rush out for him, why couldn’t he? He had been Li Jinyu’s brother for so many years, watching him being abused, abandoned, and criticized in various ways, yet he always hid in the corner like a coward, not daring to say anything. His family background wasn’t as solid as Li Jinyu’s. Both he and Gou Kai relied on others to survive. He feared Li Lingbai; he feared that because of one word from her, he might be arrested again. He was also afraid of offending people. He was diplomatic, trying to please everyone, considering himself a gentleman, but in reality, he was just a coward.
Both he and Gou Kai were like that. Sometimes they even deliberately played dumb to avoid causing trouble for their families.
They had been like this since they were young, caught in a materialistic society, constantly wearing down their principles. Whatever they did, they always put their interests first. They wouldn’t risk anything and didn’t dare to act boldly.
Li Jinyu knew everything; he wasn’t naive at all. He was clear about what kind of friends they were. He just never said anything, which was why he had been unwilling to return for so many years.
Tai Mingxiao had always felt that Li Jinyu embodied what a young man should be like.
Just as the books say, young men are occasionally childish, occasionally impulsive, and occasionally lost, but no amount of setbacks from fate can stop them from determinedly heading toward the distance.
At six o’clock, the press conference proceeded as scheduled. Li Lingbai had apparently invited about a hundred media outlets. The effort was clearly substantial this time. The venue was buzzing with voices and packed with people.
Li Lingbai sat properly in full battle array below the stage, waiting for the host to invite her up. Li Lingbai was well-preserved; from a distance, she looked like a delicate, slender-necked vase. Her skin was fair and tender, her forehead full—she didn’t look like a woman in her early fifties at all. She had no neck wrinkles, but her face appeared overly rigid due to too many hyaluronic acid injections. It might look good on camera, but in real life, it was somewhat frightening.
When the host introduced her, her posture remained haughty as she walked onto the stage, chin raised like an old swan.
“Hello everyone, I am Li Lingbai. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend my press conference. I’ll be brief…”
At that moment, Li Jinyu was having dinner with Liang Yunan at a restaurant where the food was very ordinary but ridiculously expensive. They were discussing Cai Yuanzheng when Liang Yunan suddenly put down his chopsticks and handed over his phone. “Just received news that your mother is holding a press conference.”
The live stream had quite a high viewership. After all, Li Lingbai had trended recently due to being exposed. The viewer count was steadily rising, from tens of thousands at the start to approaching a million.
Many comments were scrolling past, mostly discussing Li Lingbai’s appearance—
[I have to say, Ms. Li is well-preserved, probably the most beautiful among successful female entrepreneurs right now.]
[But hasn’t Ms. Li had too many injections in recent years? She looks a bit unnatural.]
[I think she’s fine. Being able to maintain herself like this at over fifty is already impressive. Many female celebrities aren’t as good as her.]
[Wasn’t she accused of practicing witchcraft recently?]
[You people would pick up someone’s fart and smell it if you could.]
Even Liang Yunan couldn’t help but joke, “Your mother is popular.”
Li Jinyu looked like he couldn’t be bothered to watch. He leaned loosely in his chair, with his shirt unbuttoned to the second button, carelessly flipping his phone in his hand, looking out the window, and said, “Her dream when she was young was to be a female celebrity.”
Liang Yunan took back his phone. “Then I’ll turn it off.”
In the next second, Li Lingbai’s voice from the phone suddenly disappeared. It wasn’t a break; her speech was cut off mid-sentence. Liang Yunan saw that no matter how much she tapped the microphone, it produced no sound. Even the host’s microphone was completely silent.
Liang Yunan said, “Seems like there’s a technical issue.”
The comments were continually scrolling. What’s happening? What’s going on?
Just as Ye Meng ran to the broadcast room, Tai Mingxiao had also arrived at the second-floor hall. If this were being filmed as a TV drama, the scene would show both of them pushing open the doors to the broadcast room and the banquet hall simultaneously. The banquet hall had a broadcast outlet, used for emergency evacuations.
There was some commotion among the crowd, and people looked at the scene before them in confusion, with private discussions breaking out. Tai Mingxiao stood at the door for a moment. He was a bit unsure; he knew that once he pushed open this door, he would be standing in opposition to Li Lingbai. It might even affect his parents and his grandparents who had diligently farmed in the countryside all their lives.
Tai Mingxiao tore off his tie, leaving it hanging loosely around his neck. As he walked, he kicked down audio equipment and recording devices along the way, like a general sweeping through an army. Finally, he picked up a chair and smashed it in front of the camera.
He was like an out-of-control wild bull, all gentlemanly demeanor gone.
Li Lingbai seemed not to have recovered yet, looking at this savage behavior, and for a moment didn’t even recognize who he was.
Until a somewhat lazy female voice came through the overhead speakers: “That’s enough.”
The broadcast room was empty; she had locked the door from the inside. Ye Meng, dressed in a black suit, looked neat and efficient. She coldly observed the monitor across from her, casually playing with a Swiss Army knife in her hand. Then she stuck the knife tip on the table, bent down to the microphone, and still in that lazy tone said, “Li Lingbai, do you want to continue?”
Li Lingbai seemed to signal someone in the audience with her eyes. Ye Meng smiled and her voice immediately followed: “Want to catch me? Do you want to hear what I have to say?”
The entire comment section was now boiling with excitement.
[Damn, I was just here to watch Li Lingbai’s new whitewashing technique, didn’t expect to witness such drama. So exciting!]
[This sister is so badass, my god, want to know who she is.]
[Want to marry both of them, either one is fine. Sister is fine too.]
[Li Lingbai’s face is frozen, can’t even tell she’s angry.]
Ye Meng said: “Li Lingbai, whatever you’re about to say, I will interrupt you. Don’t bother trying to have your bodyguards capture me, because I’ve already called the police. I will honestly explain tonight’s situation to the police, and I ask all media friends for their understanding because I’m just protecting someone I want to protect.”