Qiao Yan’s back pressed tightly against the freezing wall, cold sweat pooling in his palms.
The three burly men closed in together, completely sealing off his last remaining avenue of escape.
“Someone paid us,” the bald man said, taking step after step toward Qiao Yan, his massive shadow utterly swallowing Qiao Yan’s frame. “To teach you a little lesson.”
“Who?” Qiao Yan’s head was buzzing. The first name that popped into his mind was Qiao Yunguang, or that total idiot Cen Zihao.
He gritted his teeth. “How much are they paying you? I’ll give you double!”
The man with the buzz cut walked over and let out a scoff. “Rules of the underworld—once we take a job, we see it through to the end.”
Before the words had even fully left his mouth, a fist swung directly toward Qiao Yan.
Qiao Yan reflexively ducked his head to dodge the first blow, the gust of wind from the passing fist scraping painfully against his tender cheek. He had very little fighting experience, but being cornered and forced into a dead end, he couldn’t care less about form. Swinging his backpack, he smashed it right toward the buzz-cut man.
“Still got some fight in you!” The buzz-cut man dodged the backpack by twisting his body, grabbed Qiao Yan’s wrist, and wrenched it behind his back.
Qiao Yan let out a muffled groan of pain. He raised his leg to kick the man’s shin, but seeing him resist, the bald man directly kicked Qiao Yan right in the stomach.
“Ugh!” Qiao Yan’s vision went black. His stomach churned violently as if he were about to throw up. He arched his back and curled into himself, cold sweat instantly drenching his hoodie.
The disparity in strength was simply too vast.
Qiao Yan was like a cornered little beast; no matter how wildly he thrashed, he couldn’t escape their snare. Fists and boot soles rained down upon his body, causing his vision to blur in dizzying waves. His ears buzzed relentlessly, leaving him able to hear nothing but his own heavy, ragged gasps and the coarse curses of the men.
It hurt too much, it really hurt too much.
Every single punch and kick felt like it was snapping his bones apart. He had never been beaten so severely in his entire life. Tears spilled uncontrollably from his eyes, mixing with the dirt and blood on his skin until his entire face was a smeared mess.
“Stop hitting me… stop hitting…” His voice trembled. He had never suffered like this since he was a child. “It hurts…”
“Now you know it hurts? Who was the one swinging their bag at me just now?”
The buzz-cut man grabbed him by the hair, hauled him up, and slapped him across the face.
Qiao Yan’s vision grew completely blurry, and he could no longer hear anything through the ringing in his ears. Just when he thought he was going to meet his end right here, a pair of car headlights suddenly illuminated the mouth of the alley.
The piercing glare flashed inward, causing the men to freeze.
The sound of a sudden screech of brakes echoed from the distance. A car door opened and slammed shut, and hurried footsteps rapidly approached.
“Stop.”
The man’s voice was neither fast nor slow, yet it carried an absolute weight of authority.
Qiao Yan forced his swollen eyes open. Against the blinding light, he made out a tall silhouette—it was He Yanzhou.
Why is it him? This is way too humiliating!
Qiao Yan wanted to crawl back up, wanted to wipe his face—at the very least, he didn’t want He Yanzhou to see him crying. But his entire body throbbed so terribly that he couldn’t move a muscle, leaving him with no choice but to shrink further into the corner, burying his face in the shadows.
The buzz-cut man let go of Qiao Yan and turned to face the newcomer, his tone fierce. “Get the hell out of here if you don’t want to die.”
He Yanzhou completely ignored him. His gaze fell first on Qiao Yan in the corner. The boy was curled into a ball, his face a mess of blood and tears, his light-colored hoodie so filthy its original color was unrecognizable. He was quietly gasping for air, his shoulders twitching up and down.
Fragile. The word flashed through He Yanzhou’s mind.
He set down the bag of cookies that Jiang Cai had stubbornly insisted he bring at the corner of the wall. Only then did he lift his eyes to look at the three thugs.
“Coming at me all at once?”
All three men were infuriated by He Yanzhou’s arrogant demeanor. With low roars, they lunged forward.
He Yanzhou sidestepped the rush, simultaneously driving his foot into the leader’s knee crease. The bald man groaned and dropped heavily to his knees. The buzz-cut man rushed in from the side; He Yanzhou caught his swinging arm, twisting and shoving in one fluid motion. The buzz-cut man slammed hard against the wall, emitting a dull thud.
Seeing this, the man in the baseball cap drew a collapsible baton. But before he could fully swing it, He Yanzhou closed the distance, driving an elbow into his ribs, seizing the baton, and striking the man’s shoulder and neck with a backhand blow. The man in the baseball cap slumped limply to the ground.
The entire process took less than a minute. The three men lay groaning on the ground, either clutching their legs or cradling their stomachs.
He Yanzhou looked down at them from above, without even having taken off his overcoat.
Qiao Yan watched in absolute stupefaction, even forgetting to cry. How can He Yanzhou fight so incredibly well? He stared blankly as He Yanzhou walked over and squatted down to look at him.
He Yanzhou asked, “Can you get up?”
Qiao Yan wanted to nod, wanted to say he could manage it himself, not wanting to lose face any further in front of this man. But the moment he moved, agonizing pain rippled through his entire body, and tears spilled out uncontrollably. “I don’t think I can…”
His voice was hoarse and soft, heavy with a thick, tearful sob.
The moment he said it, he regretted it. How could I show such weakness in front of He Yanzhou? Qiao Yan, have some backbone, will you!
He Yanzhou frowned and reached out to support him. Qiao Yan instinctively shrank back, refusing to let He Yanzhou touch him. As a result, his injuries bumped against the wall. He hissed as he drew in a sharp breath of air, tears dropping down patter-patter.
“Stop moving.”
He Yanzhou’s tone hardened slightly as he directly scooped Qiao Yan up from the ground.
The moment Qiao Yan’s feet touched the floor, his legs turned to jelly. His entire body began to slide uncontrollably toward the ground, forcing He Yanzhou to pull him into a half-embrace. The youth felt feather-light, trembling relentlessly against his chest.
“I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“No,” Qiao Yan muttered, his face buried against He Yanzhou’s overcoat, his voice muffled. “I’m not going to the hospital. Antiseptic smells terrible…”
Still being picky at a time like this.
He Yanzhou didn’t care to waste words with him. Half-supporting and half-carrying him, he got the boy into the car. Qiao Yan curled into a tight ball in the back seat, groaning continuously.
“It hurts… it hurts so much…” Qiao Yan sobbed as he slurred out, “He Yanzhou, drive slower… the bumps are making it hurt even worse…”
He Yanzhou eased off the accelerator and glanced at him through the rearview mirror. Qiao Yan’s face was a complete mess like a spotted cat, with tears trickling down non-stop. In such a pitiful state, he definitely needed to be evaluated at a hospital. Disregarding Qiao Yan’s protests, He Yanzhou drove straight toward the nearest hospital emergency room.
The lights in the emergency room were piercingly bright.
Qiao Yan sat on a chair outside the examination room, watching nurses come and go, his heart growing increasingly anxious. The sharp scent of antiseptic forced its way into his nose, causing his stomach to churn.
When he was a child, whenever he came to the hospital, his mother would always accompany him. But now, he discovered that even his mother was a lie, and his biological mother had already passed away.
He Yanzhou had gone to pay the fees, leaving Qiao Yan sitting all alone. Staring at his filthy hoodie and the scrapes on his wrists, a sudden surge of profound grievance washed over him.
Why do I have to sit here? Why does Qiao Yunguang get to bully me to this extent?
The nurse poked her head out. “Qiao Yan?”
Qiao Yan dragged his feet as he walked inside, the rims of his eyes completely red.
The doctor was a middle-aged woman who looked very kind. “Where are you hurt?”
Qiao Yan whispered, “My whole body hurts…”
The doctor instructed him to lie down on the examination table. Lifting Qiao Yan’s clothing, she inspected the bruising around his waist and abdomen, then checked the rest of his injuries. “Do your ribs hurt?”
Qiao Yan spoke the truth: “Yes.”
The doctor pressed down on several areas of Qiao Yan’s abdomen. “Does it hurt here? What about here?”
Qiao Yan gasped sharply from the pain, tears starting to well up in his eyes once more. “It hurts, it all hurts…”
“Your ribs seem to be fine, but it’s safer to take an X-ray just in case,” the doctor preliminarily deduced. “Let’s clean and disinfect the wounds first.”
The moment he heard the word “disinfect,” Qiao Yan froze completely, a tear dropping straight from his eye.
The nurse quickly brought over a medical tray containing iodophor cotton balls, tweezers, and gauze. Staring at the brown iodophor, Qiao Yan nearly fainted from fright.
“Doctor,” Qiao Yan’s voice trembled as he attempted to appeal to the doctor’s conscience. “Can we skip it? This hurts a lot.”
“It will hurt even more if we don’t apply it; it’ll get infected,” the nurse said gently, though her hands moved without the slightest hesitation as she swiftly pulled on her medical gloves. “Bear with it, it’ll be over very quickly.”
Qiao Yan still wanted to struggle, but He Yanzhou directly pressed down on his shoulders. “Don’t move.”
The exact instant the iodophor cotton ball touched his wound, Qiao Yan shrieked out loud.
“Ah—it hurts, hurts, hurts!” Qiao Yan tried his absolute best to shrink away from the pain, but He Yanzhou held him firmly in place, leaving him entirely unable to move.
The stinging sensation of the iodophor was sharp and piercing, even harder to endure than the beating itself. Qiao Yan’s tears flowed down in a heavy torrent again. “He Yanzhou, let go of me… stop it… I don’t want to disinfect it anymore… just let it heal on its own, okay…”
The nurse’s movements were actually quite swift, dealing with the wounds efficiently. But in Qiao Yan’s mind, the agonizing timeframe was stretched out incredibly long, as if it would never end.
He let out a miserable cry every single time the nurse touched him, his fingers tightly clutching the sheets of the examination table.
Qiao Yan felt he had utterly thrown all his dignity out the window, weeping like a toddler right in front of He Yanzhou, yet he simply couldn’t stop the physiological tears.
By the time the wounds were fully treated, Qiao Yan was crying so hard he could barely catch his breath, his eyes swollen like peaches.
The doctor looked at Qiao Yan, who was still sniffing on the examination table, and then glanced at He Yanzhou, whose expression remained entirely composed. She cleanly wrote out a slip. “Go get an X-ray.”
There was a queue for the X-ray. Qiao Yan sat on a bench in the hallway, hurting too much to sit properly yet not daring to move haphazardly.
He Yanzhou sat beside him. Glancing at the time, it was already late into the night.
“Um,” Qiao Yan suddenly spoke up. “I’ll pay you back for the medical fees in the future.”
He Yanzhou didn’t even lift his head. “No need.”
Can’t you at least look up? Is this old man really that impolite?
Qiao Yan felt as though he was being dismissed. Just as he was about to bicker with He Yanzhou again, the doctor emerged.
The doctor stated that his ribs were perfectly fine—it was merely soft tissue contusion. She prescribed some medication and told him to rest up at home. Qiao Yan let out a massive sigh of relief; he definitely didn’t want to undergo surgery, which sounded incredibly painful.
When collecting the medication, Qiao Yan got a headache just looking at the assortment of bottles and boxes—some oral, some topical; he couldn’t remember a single instruction.
However, the doctor didn’t seem to intend for him to memorize them anyway. Instead, she turned directly to He Yanzhou, instructing him, “The white tablets are oral, taken twice a day. The blue capsules are for pain relief; only take them when the pain becomes severe, and do not take them on an empty stomach. As for the topical ointment—the brown one—it only works if you rub it in thoroughly; you can’t just apply it carelessly…”
Qiao Yan finally realized that the doctor had mistaken He Yanzhou for his family member.
He hurriedly cut in, “Doctor, you’ve mistaken—”
Before he could finish his words, He Yanzhou very naturally took the bag of medication and gave the doctor a calm, “Mm.”
Qiao Yan: “……”
The actual patient hasn’t heard the medical instructions yet, does anyone care?
After handing over the medication bag, the doctor departed, and He Yanzhou led Qiao Yan away.
Back in the car, Qiao Yan clutched the medicine bag, watching the night scenery flash past outside the window. “Can you take me back to my dorm?”
He Yanzhou glanced at him through the rearview mirror and turned the steering wheel. “In your condition, can you even climb into your bed?”
Qiao Yan: “……”
Qiao Yan’s struggles proved futile, and the car ultimately came to a stop beneath He Yanzhou’s apartment building.
He sluggishly shuffled out of the car. Every single step he took aggravated his injuries, causing him to grimace in pain. Walking beside him and seeing how arduous his steps were, He Yanzhou reached out a hand to steady him.
Qiao Yan stiffened for a moment. But to avoid crashing straight onto the ground, he didn’t refuse the help.
He Yanzhou’s apartment was a sprawling penthouse on the top floor with an exceptional view; an entire floor-to-ceiling window offered a panoramic view of the Ningcheng skyline. The decor followed a modern minimalist style, dominated by sophisticated gray tones, with every piece of furniture exuding an aura of extreme expense.
Qiao Yan curled his lip, the tiny spark of resentment toward the wealthy flaring up instantly in his heart.
Upon entering the door, a round, chubby orange cat that had been napping on the rug perked its ears up at the sound of activity, rolling over like a ball of fur.
It rubbed against He Yanzhou’s feet first, then suddenly paused, its amber eyes staring dead-on at Qiao Yan, who was being supported inside.
“Meow?” Pipi tilted its head, letting out a tentative meow.
Hearing the familiar voice, Qiao Yan endured the pain to look down. It really was Pipi!
Having not seen it for a few days, it seemed to have grown a whole circle fatter, its fur sleek and glossy, showing it was being exceptionally well cared for.
Pipi sniffed the air, suddenly quickened its pace, and rushed over, circling around Qiao Yan with its tail pointing high into the air. It repeatedly nudged Qiao Yan’s dangling hand with its head, its cries turning thin and urgent. “Meow-uuu… Meow-uuu…”
Qiao Yan wanted to squat down to pet it, but the moment his knees bent, the sheer pain made him draw in a sharp breath of cold air, tears welling up yet again.
Pipi let out another “meow,” gently tugging at Qiao Yan’s pant leg with its paw, its eyes filled entirely with worry.
He Yanzhou took off his overcoat, hung it on the rack, and carried the incessantly meowing Pipi back to its cat bed. He pointed toward the guest room for Qiao Yan. “You sleep here tonight.”
Staring at the clean, tidy guest room, a wave of awkward discomfort bubbled up in Qiao Yan’s heart. He had actually ended up being rescued by Qiao Yunguang’s financial backer—what on earth was this mess.
“I…”
“If you go back to the dorm like this, who is going to look after you if you start hurting in the middle of the night?” He Yanzhou interrupted him. “Jiang Cai will blame me if she finds out.”
He Yanzhou pulled out the medication, sorting them according to the doctor’s orders. “These oral ones are to be taken after meals. These topical ones are to be applied once in the morning and once at night.”
He lined up the medicine boxes one by one. “Got it?”
Uh, actually, I didn’t remember a single one.
But Qiao Yan would absolutely never admit it. He sniffled and stubbornly took the medicine bag.
“Okay.”
Having finished speaking, He Yanzhou turned and left.
Seeing He Yanzhou leave, Qiao Yan quickly steadied himself against the bathroom vanity. Although his perception of pain had lessened somewhat as time passed, his personal pain tolerance was naturally very low; it had taken every ounce of his willpower just now not to collapse right in front of He Yanzhou.
He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and nearly shrieked out loud in horror.
His face was black and blue in patches, his forehead was scraped, and a long, bloody gash lined the corner of his mouth.
Qiao Yan sat back down on the bed, enduring the throbbing pain to open the medicine bag. He pulled out the topical ointment, intending to apply it to his back.
However, the bruising on his back was located very far down. No matter how Qiao Yan strained his hand backward, he couldn’t reach it. Instead, the motion aggravated his other injuries, causing a dense, sharp pain to flare up all over again.
Cold sweat beaded on Qiao Yan’s forehead, the pain so intense he nearly burst into tears once more. Suddenly, he spotted He Yanzhou standing at the doorway holding a glass of water, leaning casually against the doorframe. “If you need help, just say so.”
Qiao Yan glared at him. “Who needs help!”
He Yanzhou then leisurely held his water glass, watching Qiao Yan twist himself into a pretzel yet still fail to reach the bruising, only succeeding in making tears well up in his eyes from the sheer pain.
The corners of his eyes were slightly red, his eyelashes drooping wetly and casting a soft shadow over his fair skin.
“Do you really not need help?” He Yanzhou adopted a cold, indifferent front, turning as if to leave. “Then suit yourself.”
Qiao Yan suddenly grew a bit anxious; after all, he truly couldn’t reach it on his own. Consequently, he reflexively bolted upward, wanting to grab He Yanzhou. However, because he rose far too quickly, he violently aggravated the injuries across his body, and the immense agony caused his vision to instantly plunge into pitch darkness.
He Yanzhou frowned. “Hey—”
Qiao Yan didn’t hear him. He only felt the entire room spinning wildly before losing consciousness entirely.