The day before leaving work, Yu Jiuqi received a call from Ge Fan, saying he was at a hotpot restaurant in the development zone giving Sun Xi a send-off, asking if Xiao Jiu wanted to come after getting off work.

Yu Jiuqi knew that hotpot restaurant—it was one of her commercial loan clients. Last year, due to poor management, they had defaulted on a loan, and Yu Jiuqi had helped them access the subsidy channel. She told Ge Fan he could mention her name to the owner for a discount, which would definitely work. Then, staring at the densely packed flow data on her computer screen, her mind went blank for a moment before she said slowly, “I’m not going. I don’t even like drinking.”

“Then just don’t drink. Sun Xi is leaving tomorrow morning, it’s just a meal. Coming?”

“Not going.”

“What’s up?”

“I’m not even familiar with him.”

“Alright then.”

Yu Jiuqi understood that Ge Fan was just asking out of courtesy. His primary principle for organizing gatherings was that there had to be lots of people, a lively atmosphere, and maximum emotional value. When he couldn’t gather enough people, he’d call Xiao Jiu, but he also wouldn’t particularly care whether she came or not. Even so, Yu Jiuqi still explained before hanging up.

“After work I need to go to Wendu Water Palace. With Christmas and New Year’s approaching, Dad and Aunt Hong have been quite busy these past few days.”

“How is this any different from working two jobs? You should ask them for wages.”

Xiao Jiu said expressionlessly with a bit of sass: “I’m a second-generation rich kid from a bathing center, do I lack money?”

Ge Fan laughed loudly twice: “Nothing wrong with that.”

After hanging up, Yu Jiuqi stared blankly in exhaustion for a long time, until a nearby colleague reminded her and she snapped back to attention.

On the other end, after hanging up, Ge Fan was still laughing, his shoulders shaking with laughter. The person across from him casually asked, “Who was that?”

“Oh, my sister.”

Ge Fan glossed over it and looked at this “good brother” he’d only known for a few days, noticing he looked more haggard than before. But he was still handsome—a clothes hanger physique, a dashing and elegant face, yet his demeanor remained composed. Sitting there for half the day without saying a word, the young girls coming and going in the hotpot restaurant all looked this way. He wasn’t narcissistic enough to think they were looking at him.

Sun Xi lowered his head and randomly checked off a few recommended dishes on the menu, handed it to Ge Fan, then casually said, “How’s her blind dating going?”

“Blind dating?” After saying this, Ge Fan made the connection—he was referring to that time at the Western restaurant when Yu Kaixuan mentioned Xiao Jiu going back for blind dates. He took the menu and added some meat dishes before saying, “No luck. Many people have tried to introduce her to someone these past two years, but nothing’s worked out.”

“Is she too picky?”

“Of course she has to be picky. Even if she weren’t, I’d help her be selective. What does Yu Xiao Jiu lack in terms of qualifications? She’s a second-generation rich kid from a bathing center, right?” After saying this, he laughed again.

After laughing, Ge Fan continued: “The main thing is that young people nowadays all move away. The population loss in Northeast China has been so severe these years. Just like you—our Shi City’s upstanding, locally born and raised handsome guy ran off to help build the capital, leaving behind those crooked melons and cracked dates, most of whom aren’t good enough for our Xiao Jiu.”

Sun Xi smiled: “So do you think someone like me would be good enough for her?”

Ge Fan half-lifted his eyelids and glanced at him, unable to gauge the depth of his words, and said politely, “The key issue is you’re not in Shi City—that’s the crux of the problem.”

“What if I were, hypothetically.” He turned his head casually, looking at the decorative lights on the frost-covered branches outside the window.

“If you were here, maybe.” Ge Fan frowned, feeling he was acting a bit strange today, and said in a perfunctory, polite manner, “Maybe I could introduce you two to chat.”

After a while, Sun Xi’s gaze moved back from outside the window, and he said, “Forget it, you’d probably regret it.”

Ge Fan suddenly looked directly across at him. Perhaps it was because the hotpot restaurant’s lighting was too dim, casting a wall-like thick fog over his face. He couldn’t quite say what was wrong, he just felt his face looked stern today and his words weren’t very pleasant. In short, he seemed different from the person in his previous impression who always maintained a faint politeness.

He suddenly felt very glad that Yu Jiuqi had refused to come over earlier.

But since the gathering was already organized, Ge Fan wouldn’t let either of their faces fall. Anyway, Sun Xi was leaving for Beijing early tomorrow morning, and who knew when they’d meet again next time. First, finish this meal somehow, and besides, having more friends means more paths—you never know about matters in the world.

Ge Fan had originally planned to call five or six people to come and have a lively drinking session together, but somehow when Sun Xi was mentioned, no one was eager to engage. In the end, he only managed to call out two colleagues from the KTV—one reluctantly attended for Brother Fan’s sake, and one was purely craving alcohol, asking if there would be unlimited drinks, and would come if there were.

There would definitely be unlimited alcohol. He directly ordered two cases of beer and set them there for踩箱喝 [unlimited drinking straight from the cases].

Accompanied by the spicy hotpot, the four young people quickly drank through one case. As rolling steam left a layer of dense water vapor on the glass windows, the effects of alcohol also flushed their faces to varying degrees.

Everyone first randomly chatted in circles about miscellaneous matters at the KTV, sharing all those strange and interesting stories they’d heard and seen. Ge Fan noticed that Sun Xi, sitting by the window, had been quietly listening the whole time, not really initiating conversation, so he naturally steered the topic toward tonight’s main character.

The bottle cap was skillfully knocked against the table corner. Ge Fan opened another bottle, passed it across, and said casually, “I heard you run a hotel in Beijing.”

Sun Xi took the beer and clinked glasses with everyone: “Small hotel, a friend’s investment. If you guys go there, come visit.”

Ge Fan nodded: “No wonder. That matter between your uncle and Fuan Shopping Mall was resolved so quickly—you have that capability.”

“It’s not resolved.” Sun Xi drank. “I’m not dealing with it anymore.”

Ge Fan glanced at the other two friends. They were all stunned. Hearing that Sun Xi was leaving, everyone naturally assumed the matter must have been successfully handled. But with his casual statement, it was somewhat unexpectedly awkward. “True, Fuan’s side is asking for way too much money. Anyone would find it difficult to come up with that much at once. Take it slowly.”

“It’s not about the money,” Sun Xi emphasized. “I’m just not dealing with it anymore.”

He propped his elbow on the table, his gaze falling on the boiling hotpot, explaining indifferently: “No brains, and greedy too. Created a whole pile of rotten messes themselves, then want me to come back and clean up. When the cleanup isn’t good, they curse at me. You don’t know, they even put on a sob story performance for me. Ha, can’t be bothered to deal with it.”

“Whether they compensate or not, whether they go to jail or not, what does it have to do with me.”

“Ungrateful idiots. With that money, I might as well tip those streamers who sing and dance and tell jokes for me. Come on, let’s drink.”

Sun Xi raised his glass again, but none of the three others clinked with him. Everyone looked at each other, wanting to speak but hesitating, each face suppressing displeasure.

Even though they were all young people who’d grown accustomed to the cold realities of human nature in entertainment venues and could laugh it off on the surface, in their hearts they all held a scale of moral conscience.

If they’d heard this kind of callous talk in a work setting on a normal day, they could all manage to ignore it, but today was a private gathering, and they’d all gotten drunk, so they couldn’t hold back anymore—they had to say something.

Ge Fan saw that the other two young brothers also had opinions and was afraid they’d start arguing, so he went first to mediate and help Sun Xi save face.

Ge Fan grabbed the bottle and clinked it with him, cleared his throat, and forced himself to deliver a speech: “Sun Xi, don’t speak in anger. The elders are human too, and humans all make mistakes in what they say and do. Nobody’s perfect. Actually, I can really understand you personally…”

“You can understand?” Sun Xi harshly interrupted Ge Fan, not giving him any face. “They’re not asking you for three million or five million. You’re an outsider—what can you understand?”

Ge Fan’s expression changed. Even though the hotpot steam was rising, the temperature at the drinking table plummeted.

“You’re being completely shameless!”

Before Ge Fan could speak, Xiao Zhuang, sitting beside him and already quite drunk, shouted a curse and slapped the table.

Sun Xi’s dark gaze swept sideways toward him. He didn’t speak, just furrowed his brow.

Xiao Zhuang got agitated and stopped holding back: “I know you. Back then on Xifeng Street, fighting and brawling, feared by people and despised by dogs, almost causing a murder case—that bad seed was you, wasn’t it?”

“I never mentioned this before, but my family is also from Xifeng Street. I’m a few years younger than you, but I’ve heard some things about you.” Xiao Zhuang straightened his back, his neck flushing bright red. “Now you’ve come back all dressed up, showing off with your Audi and Prada. If your uncle and aunt hadn’t raised you back then, you would have starved to death long ago!”

Sun Xi remained impassive: “So what?”

“So what?” Xiao Zhuang got even angrier seeing his careless attitude. “So you should be grateful!”

“You’re so righteous and virtuous, why don’t you go take care of it.” He actually smiled slightly.

“What does it have to do with me?”

“Then shut your mouth.”

“Damn!” Xiao Zhuang, in his agitation, blurted out, “The murderer’s son really isn’t any good!”

Ge Fan’s mind buzzed as he looked toward Sun Xi.

Sun Xi was still holding the beer bottle, glancing coldly at Xiao Zhuang. He didn’t seem angry, but his expression was definitely not pleasant.

He applied some force with his hand, his knuckles turning white as they suddenly appeared, as if he was about to grab the bottle. But before he could make a move, Xiao Zhuang, with quick reflexes, threw the bottle in his hand at Sun Xi, sending him another profanity along with it.

Ge Fan reached out trying to block the bottle, but it was too late. Sun Xi dodged, and the bottle smashed against the window sill. The exploding shards cut Ge Fan’s hand, immediately leaving a bloody mark.

“Bro, are you okay?” Xiao Zhuang stood up, but was too drunk to stand steady.

“I’m fine, everyone’s having a good time, don’t start trouble!” Ge Fan pressed tissue against his wound, still trying to control the situation.

But Xiao Zhuang was already too drunk to listen. He glared at Sun Xi with wide eyes. Besides the anger he’d been holding in from the earlier mockery, he also blamed Sun Xi for Brother Ge Fan’s injury. His heart hardened, he gritted his teeth, and grabbed another unopened beer bottle and viciously smashed it on Sun Xi’s head.

After getting a solid beer shower, no matter how much Ge Fan tried to mediate, the situation spiraled out of control.

Afterward, in the spicy, steaming fog, under the Northeast DJ dance music playing on loop in the hotpot restaurant, Ge Fan couldn’t even distinguish between friend and foe or which side to take. In the chaotic fight with his friends, beer bottles exploded everywhere, enthusiastically declaring that this farewell gathering he’d organized had completely failed, ending in magical chaos.

When Yu Jiuqi received the call from the hotpot restaurant, she was at the front desk of Wendu Water Palace scanning codes and redeeming vouchers for group-buy customers standing in a long queue.

She patiently explained the applicable scope of the group-buy vouchers to each person, then handed out wristbands and corresponding gift sets one by one, fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

To warm up for the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s double holiday, Yu Kaixuan had spent a fortune on promotional fees, and it had paid off that very day. Two long queues like this formed at the front desk, with her and Sister Xiao Man each handling one.

Yu Kaixuan’s promotional tactics were simple. He had recently gone to Changchun specifically to negotiate cooperation with a local MCN media company, signing a big contract. He had several pillar internet celebrities under their agency shoot videos at Wendu Water Palace. After driving traffic, they would livestream and sell group-buy vouchers of different tiers, starting today with relay-style consecutive livestreams for three nights.

Today, a female comedy internet celebrity with a million followers came and was livestreaming on the second floor. More than half of the customers in line were fans who had come upon hearing the news. Yu Jiuqi marveled at how impressive these ordinary internet celebrities’ ability to drive sales was these days, and entertained the idea that she should properly cultivate the “Northeast Domineering CEO”—wouldn’t that save Brother Erkai’s promotional fees?

At the mention of Ge Fan, Yu Jiuqi, who was answering a customer’s question, suddenly spaced out, wondering if that meal had ended yet.

Just then, she received a call from the hotpot restaurant owner, saying Ge Fan and his friends had gotten into a fight. Beer bottles were smashed all over the floor, several heads were injured. The owner also said that when ordering, he mentioned being your brother, so I thought I’d contact you first and not call the police. Do you want to come over and try to calm things down?

Yu Jiuqi handed her work to another front desk employee, walked to the back employee break room, her mind in turmoil and confused all the way. Only after slowly sorting out her thoughts did she say, “Don’t call the police. I’ll go take a look. How many people are there? Are they all injured?”

“Four people, not one without blood on them. You’d better come quickly.”

By the time Yu Jiuqi took a taxi to the hotpot restaurant in the development zone, only two of the four wounded remained. Ge Fan and Sun Xi each held a blood-stained towel pressed against their heads, sitting at tables two apart from each other. The floor was a mess. The restaurant was half-empty, but there were still two tables of bold customers who weren’t afraid of trouble, still eating their hotpot.

They both saw Xiao Jiu almost simultaneously. Ge Fan asked in surprise, “How did you get here?” while Sun Xi just tilted his head looking at her, saying nothing.

Yu Jiuqi was suddenly dazzled by something, something glaring. Looking more carefully, it was the wide plain silver ring on his index finger.

He was gripping the towel pressed against his head, the ring positioned under a beam of pale overhead light, gleaming brilliantly and piercingly, piercing straight into her heart.

She felt somewhat angry, and also didn’t understand. According to yesterday’s agreement, he just needed to leave directly—why deliberately create this scene?

Of course it was deliberate. Xiao Jiu knew that when Ge Fan encountered problems, he was usually a peacemaker and definitely not someone who would start fights. It was his doing, deliberately. But why?

She could tell both had superficial wounds and weren’t seriously hurt. Xiao Jiu briefly communicated with the hotpot restaurant owner and learned that the other two had been picked up by their families, and Ge Fan had also basically compensated the restaurant for damages. The owner said he didn’t need to worry about anything else, just take the people away so he could clean up and continue business in the second half of the night.

Yu Jiuqi said okay, thank you, brother. Then she walked over to help up the thoroughly drunk Ge Fan, saying let’s go home first. She completely ignored Sun Xi sitting behind them, although she could feel his gaze directed at her.

Ge Fan stumbled to his feet and also noticed that blunt, crude gaze from behind. He didn’t hold back and retorted: “What are you looking at?”

Yu Jiuqi said quietly, “Let’s go.”

Ge Fan lowered his head, looking at Xiao Jiu with some sadness: “Let me tell you, Jiu, this guy is selfish, disowns his own family. He said he’d rather tip streamers with his money than help his uncle and aunt. I even considered him a friend—isn’t he just a bastard!”

After hearing these words, Yu Jiuqi suddenly understood something, her heart tightening wave after wave. But at the moment she couldn’t worry about anything else, only gripped Ge Fan’s arm forcefully pulling him, wanting to leave quickly. Suddenly she heard a rhetorical question mixed with cold laughter from behind.

His volume wasn’t high, but every word was clear: “You’re calling me a bastard?”

Yu Jiuqi turned her head back and looked at Sun Xi, her expression earnest, hoping he would stop there, not say more, there was no need to say more.

But he tilted his head slightly, suddenly looking frankly at Xiao Jiu, his gaze roguish: “You don’t know, do you? Earlier your brother almost introduced you to this bastard.”

After saying this, he smiled again with pursed lips. Seemingly teasing, seemingly self-deprecating, seemingly the rogue mockery of a scoundrel.

Ge Fan finally exploded in rage, cursed, shook off Yu Jiuqi, rushed toward Sun Xi, raised his fist, and swung down hard. Sun Xi didn’t dodge or fight back, as if waiting to take this punch.

Yu Jiuqi strode over to pull Ge Fan back. Ge Fan suddenly lost his footing, braced himself against the table and slid down. Xiao Jiu also slid with him, her feet losing control, her body toppling over.

Suddenly at that moment, a hand caught her shoulder, then slid down, gripping her hand and propping her up.

She looked over and saw Sun Xi bending down, looking at her through the gap between table legs, his gaze intense and obscure.

But Xiao Jiu suddenly understood everything, understood it all.

She understood that today he came to be a bastard—a murderer’s ungrateful son who disowned his family, a roguish bastard scoundrel, a selfish scum who cared about no one.

Such a rotten-to-the-core person had no weak points, no bottom line. No one could hurt him by hurting others.

He not only had to leave, but had to leave as a bastard for everyone to have peace.

Just like nine years ago.

That hand suddenly released her. Yu Jiuqi instinctively grabbed at it but caught nothing, instead harshly scraping against that plain ring. The rough edge texture left a dull, heavy pain on her fingertip.

That dull, heavy pain didn’t disappear even after they left.

Yu Jiuqi hailed a taxi at the restaurant entrance, stuffed Ge Fan inside, but stood outside and stopped.

She suddenly realized this might be goodbye.

She turned back and looked into the restaurant. It was almost empty—the person was already gone.

Yu Jiuqi sent Ge Fan back to Yu Kaixuan’s house. Not long after, Aunt Hong and Yu Kaixuan also returned, bustling around Ge Fan with his injured head. Xiao Jiu stood to the side the whole time, calm and quiet.

Even when Ge Fan indignantly repeated Sun Xi’s bastard behavior from tonight, she showed no expression.

Later, she was in the bathroom washing the dirtied towels and clothes. Before long, Yu Kaixuan came in, rinsed his hands under the faucet, then said while wiping them: “This time your mom can’t make her crickets fight—the cricket ran away, what’s there to fight about?”

“That’s good too.” He glanced at Xiao Jiu.

Her fingertip suddenly throbbed with pain. Taking it out of the water to look, there was nothing on the pale knuckle.

Sun Xi left Shi City that very night. He paid double the price to hire a long-distance designated driver, sat in a corner of the back seat, took off his down jacket to cover himself, and closed his eyes.

Midway, he only made one phone call to Sun Tingting.

He concisely and calmly instructed Tingting that he had already compensated 300,000 yuan to the coffee shop on the first floor where the mall collapsed, and had signed a settlement agreement. He deposited 100,000 yuan into their grandmother’s hospital account, and would later transfer 50,000 yuan to Tingting for her to keep for college entrance art exams.

He also said, tell your parents to rest assured, the other party probably won’t sue them, but they should temporarily stop the business on Xifeng Street. The shop could be transferred out to do some other business—whether they listened or not was up to them.

Finally, he simply said, I’m leaving, going back.

Before hanging up, he seemed to hear Tingting crying, saying something through tears. Sun Xi was too tired and didn’t pay attention.

Soon, he lay down and slept.

The car drove on the midnight highway. The long-distance designated driver drank another can of Red Bull, glanced at the navigation—still eight hours to Beijing. His tired eyes forced themselves wider open. He thought if this oddly strange handsome guy hadn’t been so generous with money, he wouldn’t have taken this job if you paid him double.

He glanced at the rearview mirror and happened to see that generous handsome guy curled up in the back seat, brows tightly furrowed, hair disheveled, with injuries on his head.

He suddenly felt that he looked a bit like a homeless, defeated dog.