After entering the room, Tang Lici stood at the desk with his back to him, still writing with the brush in his left hand, as if he wasn’t the one who had opened the door just now. Fu Zhumei entered carrying the medicine but found himself at a loss, standing there blankly holding it and watching him write. He stood like this for nearly an entire hour, until Tang Lici finished filling the rice paper on the desk with dense, extremely fine calligraphy. Only then did he muster the courage to say blankly, “A’Li, the medicine has gone cold.”
Tang Lici stood up and turned around with a slight smile. “Idiot, when I closed the door, you didn’t dare come in. When I was writing, you didn’t dare speak. After all these years, you’re still so easily bullied.” His manner was elegant and his words gentle, yet this sentence didn’t know whether it expressed intimacy or was saying he had Fu Zhumei completely figured out. With this one sentence, Fu Zhumei was struck speechless, not knowing how to respond. “A’Li… you don’t hate me anymore?” Tang Lici’s expression darkened. “Of course I hate you!” Fu Zhumei was so frightened by this sudden change of face that he didn’t dare say another half sentence, silent as a cicada in winter. After Tang Lici’s expression darkened, he immediately smiled gently, his smile beautiful as a flower. “You came to see me, I’m very happy.” Fu Zhumei stared blankly at his ever-changing face and let out a long breath. “How… how are your injuries?”
Tang Lici’s expression was calm. “They’re healed.” Without thinking, Fu Zhumei said, “Liar!” Tang Lici’s elegant brows furrowed slightly. “What did you say?” Fu Zhumei set down the medicine. “This is how you are when you lie—you say it more convincingly than the truth. When you tell the truth, it sounds like you’re lying instead.” Tang Lici’s expression darkened again. Fu Zhumei immediately shut his mouth, not daring to say another word, though his eyes still showed complete disbelief. The two remained in a standoff for a while. After a moment, Tang Lici turned and set down his brush, his tone gentle as if nothing had just happened. “How did you come to appear here? I searched for you for a long time without the slightest news. I thought that after Fang Zhou died, you had severed all ties with me and were prepared never to see each other again until death.” Fu Zhumei waved his hands repeatedly. “No… it’s not like that. About Fang Zhou… I understood later that Fang Zhou’s matter wasn’t your fault. How could I hate you? I know very clearly that in your heart, you cared for him… cared for him very much.” Tang Lici suddenly turned around. “You…” Instead, he laughed. “Do you know how Fang Zhou died? He was killed when I dug out his heart while he was still alive. Do you know how painful it is to have your heart dug out while alive? I told him I was digging out his heart to save him. He believed me very much. He endured the pain and let me dig. I cut open his chest, making blood all over the ground—do you know how much blood that was? When he died, he believed he would be brought back to life. He was grateful to me! He was grateful to me!” He suddenly burst into loud laughter. “Hahaha… do you know what happened to him in the end? In the end, he was chopped into eight pieces and thrown among rotten wood to feed the ants. Those maggots crawled back and forth in his eye sockets, one by one, circle after circle of colors… some white, some black… hahahaha…”
“A’Li!” Fu Zhumei grabbed his shoulders and shook him forcefully. “A’Li! Stop thinking about it!” Tang Lici pushed him away with one hand. His strength was extraordinarily great. Fu Zhumei was pushed so hard he fell to the ground. Tang Lici retreated several steps. “Hahaha… hahahaha…” He couldn’t stop his maniacal laughter. “And Chi Yun… hahaha… I used a flute to smash open his head. When he was dying, he glared at me viciously… even after death he wanted to crawl over and strangle me to death…”
“A’Li!” Fu Zhumei leaped up. Tang Lici’s maniacal laughter was not yet finished. His whole body trembled, and he suddenly swayed and fell backward softly. Fu Zhumei hastily reached out to support him. Tang Lici’s unconsciousness was extremely brief—he woke up instantly and struggled violently to get up, shouting harshly, “Get away! All of you get away!”
All of you? Fu Zhumei gripped his hand tightly. What exactly was he seeing in his eyes? Had A’Li spent all these days alone in such a state of madness, day after day? Alone pretending nothing had happened, alone facing the deaths of two people, alone facing chaotic hallucinations? “Look clearly, I’m Fu Zhumei, I… I’m not someone else. There’s no one else here, only me. What are you seeing?” Tang Lici gripped Fu Zhumei’s hand tightly. Because it was ice-cold and damp, Fu Zhumei could hardly feel which part of his hand was actually gripping him—it was like being grasped by a lump of ice. “Stop thinking about it, you’re about to go mad!”
Tang Lici trembled slightly and suddenly quieted down. He raised his hand to cover half his face. After a long while, “Tell them all to go away.” Fu Zhumei didn’t know who the “them” he referred to were. “Them? They’ve all gone away. There’s nothing here, only me.” Tang Lici breathed rapidly once, slowly lowered his right hand, and looked at Fu Zhumei. He looked for a long while. “You go out, I’m tired.”
“A’Li…” Fu Zhumei picked up the bowl of medicine. Tang Lici grabbed the bowl and threw it out. With a crash, the medicinal liquid splashed on the ground, and immediately the floor turned scorched black. Fu Zhumei was stunned. Tang Lici shouted harshly, “Get out!” Fu Zhumei stood up, staring fixedly at the scorched black medicinal liquid on the ground. “I’ll go out, I’ll go out. You… you lie on the bed and rest. Don’t come down, the floor is poisoned.” Tang Lici paid no attention to “poisoned.” Leaning against the head of the bed, he suddenly grabbed Fu Zhumei’s sleeve and pulled him over with one motion, bringing his lips close to Fu Zhumei’s ear and speaking word by word in a gentle voice, “I tell you, I will not forgive you, and you absolutely must not forgive me. Fang Zhou is dead—I caused his death. Chi Yun is dead—I killed him. No one is allowed to say they don’t blame me. No one in this world is allowed to not hate me. Do you remember the sword strike you gave me? Do you still remember the sword strike you gave me? You hate me, you still hate me just like on the day Fang Zhou died… hahaha… killing brothers and friends, no matter who they are, they can all die, all of them go die for me!”
“I… I…” Fu Zhumei was tongue-tied. Encountering Tang Lici’s extreme personality truly made him dizzy and confused. “I…” Tang Lici let go and turned his face aside. “I’m tired. If you don’t go out, do you want to sleep with me?” Fu Zhumei widened his eyes, seeing him speak gently with a smile, his manner quite charming, yet his eyes were extremely cold, filled with murderous intent. “I’ll go out, I’ll go out, A’Li.” He looked at Tang Lici hesitantly, really not knowing how to help him. After a while, “Stop thinking about it.” He stood up, wiped away the poisoned medicinal liquid on the floor, and quietly withdrew.
Fu Zhumei closed the door. Tang Lici lay on the bed, closed his eyes, let out a long breath, raised his right hand to place on his forehead, and fell into deep sleep.
A’Li… was the same as before, carrying too many burdens. Fu Zhumei stared straight ahead, walking in bewilderment. Carrying too many burdens… so many that he could no longer bear them, had long since collapsed. It was just that A’Li was different from others in one way—even after collapsing, he absolutely refused to give up, right? So he appeared very strong, indestructible…
He had heard… A’Li’s parents were very wealthy. He had also heard… A’Li wasn’t born naturally to his mother, but through genetic precision screening, where doctors selected the optimal genetic combination from his parents, modified part of the DNA expression, and used a woman in a vegetative state as a surrogate to give birth to him. The reason was that A’Li’s father wanted a perfect child, while his mother didn’t want to suffer the pain of childbirth. He didn’t know if such a birth had any special meaning for A’Li. At least on the surface, he couldn’t tell, but if it were him, he would feel very disappointed.