Yan Qingming, pinned down and unable to move, said in a deep voice, “I am very sorry about what happened to your parents, but every wrong has its perpetrator. Since they are already in prison, I do not believe you should implicate others.”
Qi Xiaolin chuckled softly. “You do not seem to feel much sadness regarding your foster parents being imprisoned.”
Yan Qingming replied, “There is nothing to be sad about. Karma will always find a way; they have to pay for the sins they committed.”
He had grown up in the Yan family, and although he did not involve himself in their dirty business, he had heard enough. Even as their adopted son, those things made him feel disgusted by the family.
Qi Xiaolin released the hand he had been using to pin Yan Qingming’s head and moved it to his waist, maintaining his position on top and letting his entire weight press down on Yan Qingming.
“I like your sense of clarity, but there is one thing I disagree with. The Qi family never provoked the Yan family, and Qingyan certainly never provoked you. We were innocent. Why should there be a perpetrator for every wrong? I am determined to make every one of you pay the price!”
Yan Qingming did not bother to argue further. In this situation, speaking more would only lead to a meaningless dispute that would change nothing.
Qi Xiaolin, like a large dog, pressed himself against Yan Qingming’s neck, sniffing as if to confirm something. Yan Qingming had a pleasant scent, like snow melting on a mountain after the sun comes out. It was indescribable, but it was incredibly addictive; Qi Xiaolin felt restless if he could not hold Yan Qingming for a single day.
Yan Qingming frowned, forcing himself to ignore Qi Xiaolin’s beast-like behavior as he marked his territory.
Before he realized it, the collar of his shirt grew damp. Qi Xiaolin’s voice was choked with sobs.
“Qingming, your name is so similar to Qingyan’s, but you are not the same. You are twenty-nine this year, and you will be thirty next year, then thirty-one, then thirty-two. But Qingyan was only fifteen. He stayed fifteen forever; he could never grow up.”
“My parents were kidnapped by Yan Feng and his men. I was a spoiled young master who knew nothing. It was Qingyan who took me on the run. It was he who humbled himself and begged those who once had ties with the Qi family to hide us for a while. During that time, I was like a useless wreck, dependent on him for everything, even though he was not much older than I was. He was just a child, the child of a servant whom I had always bullied and looked down upon.”
“He always took care of me. Later, because I said I missed my parents, he took me to A Island to save them without a second thought. Just the two of us, two half-grown kids playing at being adults, went to such a distant place. Our fate was tragic; we were discovered as soon as we arrived. He led me around, hiding everywhere, but we were found eventually. To save me, he hid me in a farmhouse cellar and walked into the dog kennel himself, using the barking of the dogs to draw those people’s attention away. In the end, I cried as I escaped A Island, but Qingyan never came out.”
“The Qi family fell, and I was penniless. No one was willing to follow a ten-year-old child harboring fantasies of a comeback. I had no official registration and dared not use my real name. I drifted everywhere, going from one strange city to another. Just for a bite to eat, I did one job after another, things I once despised. At first, I wanted revenge, to avenge the Qi family and Qingyan, but in the end, it felt like the only thing left in my mind was the word survive.”
“It was not until I met you that I heard the name Yan again. That was when I finally remembered who I was, what I had been through, and why all my relatives had left me.”
“It is ridiculous. Just because of a piece of land my family owned that would fetch a high price later, and because the Yan family knew my ancestors were officials who hid many expensive antiques, they took the lives of my entire family for a few crumbs of silver!”
“Qingming, if you had experienced these things, would you want to forgive those people? Would you be able to resist implicating the innocent? I cannot do it. Kindness is the most useless thing. Right now, I only want to use any means necessary to get everything I want!”