When Jin Fengzi suddenly heard Jiang Mu’s question, his hand holding the beer froze. He looked up at her with furrowed brows and asked, “Who told you about this?”

Jiang Mu’s small frame seemed to be swallowed by the blue plastic chair. Still keeping her head down, her voice echoed like a boulder dropping into a well, “He didn’t take the college entrance exam because he was arrested, didn’t he?”

Jin Fengzi suddenly fell silent. His silence only intensified Jiang Mu’s suspicions, and her voice trembled uncontrollably as she gripped her beer, “Brother Jin, tell me, did he kill someone?”

Jin Fengzi raised his beer and drained it, then crushed the can before responding to Jiang Mu, “I don’t know where you heard all this, but while he did get into trouble, that death wasn’t on him.”

Jiang Mu slowly raised her head, and Jin Fengzi was startled to see her bloodshot eyes brimming with tears as she choked out, “He’s been by my side since I was born. When I was little, I always wanted to be like him. Have you seen him giving speeches at the podium? Have you seen the wall of certificates in his old room? Have you seen the pump drive mechanism he made in fourth grade?”

“I have. I’ve seen so many examples of his excellence. Someone like him, who understood life better than his peers from such a young age—how could he break the law? How could he end up in prison?”

Her eyes were filled with worry and trembling light. Jin Fengzi had never seen anyone so distressed over Jin Chao’s situation. He knew all of Jin Chao’s friends and family, but almost none of them had been this heartbroken over him. Even during Jin Chao’s lowest point, his family had only continuously reprimanded him, showing more disappointment than concern, and frantically asking teachers to keep things quiet to avoid embarrassment.

During Jin Chao’s time inside, only his close friends had pooled money to send him support, hoping to make his days more bearable. His family had barely visited twice.

Jin Fengzi opened another can of beer. Thinking back to those events made him uncomfortable, but what made him even more uncomfortable was watching this genuinely concerned young woman lose faith in Jin Chao.

Only after finishing the entire can of beer did he gradually tell Jiang Mu what had happened.

After Si Dang Mountain was closed off, Jin Chao lost his source of income again. That same year, Jin Xin was diagnosed with an illness. Jin Qiang and Zhao Meijuan took her all over Tonggang for treatment, but the condition continued to spread. They heard that Beijing offered excimer laser treatment that was effective for this condition, so they rushed to the capital with Jin Xin. Two round trips depleted all their family savings, yet the treatment couldn’t provide immediate results. For the entire family, it became a bottomless pit. Jin Xin alone overwhelmed Jin Qiang and Zhao Meijuan, leaving them no capacity to care for Jin Chao, who often went hungry.

He needed money for his survival and, if possible, hoped to help fund Jin Xin’s continued treatment.

So shortly after Si Dang Mountain was closed, when some of their old associates had switched to working with cars, Jin Chao was introduced to Wan Ji Auto Shop. Jin Fengzi had already dropped out of school by then, and he started at Wan Ji around the same time as Jin Chao. While Jin Fengzi apprenticed under a master mechanic, Jin Chao did odd jobs and general labor. Despite this, he learned faster than Jin Fengzi.

But the money came too slowly this way. At that time, some mechanics at the shop were privately buying cheap used cars from owners, reconditioning them, and reselling them for a profit of ten to twenty thousand yuan or more per transaction.

Jin Chao saw the profit potential and indeed managed to scrape together enough money to buy an inexpensive car. A buyer told him they would pay more if he could improve the 0-100 km/h acceleration and other performance metrics, so Jin Chao modified the powertrain and transmission systems.

He made good money on that transaction and then stopped to focus on preparing for his exams. He wanted to test out of Tonggang, knowing he couldn’t rely on his family anymore. He gave part of the money to Jin Qiang and kept some for his college living expenses, planning to apply for student loans for the rest.

If not for what happened next, everything could have gone according to plan. No one would have known, and no one would have come looking for him over privately selling one car.

But that car ended up in an accident. The owner lost control while driving, resulting in total loss of both vehicle and life. The subsequent investigation determined that the accident was caused by safety hazards from illegal modifications to the vehicle.

The case was eventually traced back to Jin Chao. The deceased’s family believed his illegal modifications and sale constituted criminal negligence, and they filed charges against him.

Jin Chao was still a minor that year and was ultimately sentenced to six months of detention.

From the day Jin Chao stood in court, his proud spirit was utterly broken. He couldn’t accept that a life was lost due to his mistake, nor could he accept that his actions had shattered another family. Watching the middle-aged parents of the victim faint repeatedly from grief, he could never forgive himself.

He let them hit him, let them curse him, feeling he deserved it all and even more punishment. Indeed, he tortured himself in the most brutal ways.

For a long time afterward, his personality changed dramatically. He became quiet and withdrawn, his former confidence and vigor completely vanished. Even after his release, he wouldn’t fight back against anyone’s mockery or exclusion, refusing to return either blows or insults.

His teachers from Attached Middle School contacted him, hoping he would return to complete his unfinished education, but he had lost his way in life. Though he hadn’t killed anyone directly, his hands were stained with blood. He refused to set foot in the school again, feeling unworthy of entering that sacred hall.

He returned to Wan Ji, this time starting over as an apprentice. He took on the dirtiest and most exhausting work, operating like a machine without set working hours. He was more hardworking and accommodating than anyone else, focused only on continuously improving his skills as if punishing himself for his past mistakes through this dedication.

His willingness to learn and endure hardship made him the fastest-improving technician among Wan Ji’s several shops. Eventually, he could diagnose vehicle problems just by listening to engine sounds.

Many car owners would only trust Jin Chao after dealing with him once. Seemingly to prevent any repeat of his past mistake, he would repeatedly check everything before returning a vehicle, personally test-driving it to ensure there were no issues.

During those first two years, the parents of the deceased would often come to Wan Ji. The shop staff found them annoying and would speak harshly to them, even threatening violence if they returned. Each time, Jin Chao would intervene, quietly giving them some money. In his view, since the loss of a child in middle age was his fault, he should compensate them as much as he could.

But as his technical expertise grew, he also came to understand more about Wan Ji’s practices.

Parts switching, package maintenance scams, overdiagnosis, excessive repairs—all sorts of schemes existed. For-profit, the shop and mechanics would deliberately misadjust ignition timing, add beverages to engine oil, put salt in coolant to accelerate radiator deterioration, and other unsavory tactics to ensure customers kept bringing money to the shop.

Later, Old Man Wan came to appreciate Jin Chao and put him in charge of managing the repair shop. He wouldn’t let his staff engage in these dirty practices, and when he was present, the younger mechanics stayed in line. But there were always senior mechanics with more seniority who were set in their ways and wouldn’t listen to him.

These mechanics had accumulated many old parts—deliberately removed ones, parts rejected by owners, nearly expired ones, defective ones, and so on. The bolder ones would swap these old parts for good ones, then sell the new parts for drinking money.

Once, Jin Chao caught a senior mechanic who had nearly switched out all the parts in an entire car. He was furious, but the mechanic was dismissive, saying everyone had been doing this for years and knew their limits.

The old master’s words suddenly awakened something in Jin Chao. From that day, his consciousness began to stir. He recalled the modification process from his senior year, each step and detail magnifying in his mind.

Back then, lacking experience, he had believed the tragedy must have resulted from his carelessness, and since then had approached technical work with reverence, caution, and constant self-reflection.

But with years of accumulated experience, thinking back to that incident, he could almost certainly determine that his modifications couldn’t have caused the vehicle to lose control. The car had been stored at Wan Ji for a long time before delivery, and when the buyer paid him, he had let them take the car directly from Wan Ji without inspection.

It wasn’t Wan Ji’s car, nor any customer’s car—just one he had bought and temporarily stored there. If these people would tamper with actual customer vehicles, what might they do to an unrelated car gathering dust?

Jin Chao began making subtle inquiries among all employees with more than four years of experience. No wall is completely sealed, and finally, at a drinking session, an old master mechanic let slip that Wan Dayong had tampered with the car’s sensors and actuators that year.

Wan Dayong was Old Man Wan’s nephew, so after the accident, everyone kept quiet. Old Man Wan had even privately warned those who knew since Jin Chao, being unaffiliated with the shop and still a minor at the time, would receive a lighter sentence. But if Wan Dayong’s involvement came to light, he would not only face prosecution and imprisonment but directly impact Wan Ji’s business.

Jin Chao had indeed made a mistake—agreeing to illegally modify the vehicle—but this offense alone shouldn’t have led to imprisonment. Yet, isolated and helpless, he had been pushed forward to bear the burden of death alone.

When Jin Chao confronted Old Man Wan, he simply replied, “What proof do you have?”

There was no proof. The crashed vehicle was long beyond investigation, and even though that old master had told Jin Chao the truth out of conscience, he would never dare offend Old Man Wan by testifying. It was a conviction that could never be overturned.

Old Man Wan still tried to persuade him to look forward rather than dwell on the past, saying he had given Jin Chao such a great platform. If he wanted, Old Man Wan could offer additional financial compensation for his six months of suffering inside.

That day, Tonggang was sweltering. The shop’s workers were smoking, working, chatting, and horsing around.

But everyone heard Jin Chao smash up Old Man Wan’s reception room, then watched him leave the place he’d worked for over three years, never to return.

After Jin Chao left, Wan Ji’s staff became demoralized. Amid constant rumors, many people quit. Jin Fengzi had wanted to leave too, but his father was in poor health, and his income at Wan Ji after so many years was decent. When Jin Chao left, he had only said one thing to him: “You and I are different. I’m leaving Wan Ji for lost justice, but you must stay for your family.”

…

The night grew colder, but Jiang Mu no longer felt the external chill. She only felt an icy cold emanating from within, mixed with the bitterest, most mournful wind.

While she had been living her simple life between home and school, Jin Chao had already been caught in a complex whirlpool. She hadn’t been by his side—no one had. Every day he endured the torment of his conscience, his passionate spirit drained away, his burning dreams crushed. He was only seventeen, facing the deceased’s parents and the law’s iron cage alone. No one told him how to move forward, no one accompanied him through those torturous days and nights.

He tried his best to make amends for his mistake at seventeen. Such a brilliant person, now dulled by dust, wings broken, hiding in a sunless corner, endlessly tormenting himself.

She couldn’t imagine how angry, wronged, and pained he must have been when he learned the truth behind the accident. Those were four irreversible years of his life, yet when she saw him again, reality had worn away his sharp edges. He had hidden the world’s cruelty in places no one could see, maintaining a calm surface.

Only now did Jiang Mu see that behind that unusual calm lay dignity and spirit torn to shreds by thorns.

Jiang Mu had lost count of how many beers she’d had. Each time she finished one, Jin Fengzi handed her another. Rather than warming up, she grew colder with each of his words. Multiple images appeared before her eyes, each one Jin Chao, until he seemed to appear before her, calling her name.

“Mumu, Mumu…”

Her shoulders were shaken several times. The operating room door opened, and she heard Dr. Li tell Jin Fengzi and the newly-arrived Jin Chao: “We’ve stitched the wound, but there was severe blood loss. Fortunately, Gouzi is DEA1.1, so we could give a transfusion. Survival depends on the next two days—prepare for the worst.”

Jiang Mu stood up unsteadily and saw Shandian being moved to another room through the glass. She pressed against the glass, tears falling silently. She couldn’t tell if she was grieving for Shandian or Jin Chao. The comfortable life of her past eighteen years had been violently torn apart, revealing life’s cruelest face, laid bloody before her.

Dr. Li told them, “Leave your contact information and deposit, then head home. We have staff on night duty—they’ll contact you if anything happens.”

While Jin Chao was registering, Jiang Mu sat watching him. He wore a black short parka and black leather gloves, his features severe. Jiang Mu didn’t even know when he’d returned; seeing him like this felt unreal.

Jin Chao’s brows remained furrowed as he occasionally glanced at Jiang Mu sitting to the side. Her coat, which had wrapped the blood-covered Shandian, was filthy. She wore only a cream-colored sweater, its collar and cuffs stained with darkened blood. Her gaze was unfocused and dazed; she seemed to sway even while sitting, like a lost, helpless soul.

Jin Chao’s lips tightened as he quickened his movements. After handing the registration information to the nurse, he turned to curse at Jin Fengzi in a low voice: “What the hell’s wrong with you? Why’d you let her drink so much?”

Jin Fengzi replied carelessly, “I was worried she’d be too shocked, never having experienced life and death before.”

Jin Chao glared at him speechlessly, then walked to Jiang Mu. Her eyes followed his movement, looking up at him woodenly, filled with moisture.

Jin Chao took off his coat and put it on her, then knelt to remove his gloves and slip them onto her hands. A warm current dispersed the cold in Jiang Mu’s heart, and her misty eyes refused to leave Jin Chao.

He looked up and asked, “Shall we go home?”

Jiang Mu nodded but didn’t move. Jin Chao asked again, “Can you walk?”

She shook her head: “No.”

Her legs hurt, her stomach was empty, her vision was blurry—she couldn’t walk anymore. Seeing her matter-of-fact response, Jin Chao’s lips twitched slightly as he bent down and lifted her from the chair.

The moment her body left the ground, Jiang Mu’s small frame curled tightly in Jin Chao’s arms, like a bird returning to its nest. Unsure if she was still in shock, Jin Chao drew her closer to his chest.

Outside the pet hospital, the cold wind whistled past their ears. Jiang Mu raised her arms around his neck and buried her face in his collarbone. Warm tears rolled down her cheeks onto his chest. His steps faltered as he looked down at her face, hidden by her hair, feeling her slightly trembling body, and heard her say, “Please don’t push me away again, okay?”