“Impossible.”
Cheng Yanzhou stood up abruptly, dragging his chair across the floor with a harsh screech.
With trembling fingers, he tapped open the news details. When he saw the words “Driver’s identity pending confirmation, no trace of escape found at the scene,” the blood rushed straight to his head.
No.
It is not him. It definitely is not him.
He grabbed his car keys and bolted out. His assistant shouted from behind, “President Cheng, the car is not ready yet.”
That only earned a near-roar in response: “No need. I will drive myself.”
The local broadcast on the car radio was still playing traffic news. He slammed the radio off, leaving only the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.
He remembered the flat tone in Shen Qi’s voice when he hung up, how his care over the past two days had been repeatedly rejected, and how Shen Qi had brought up divorce that very night.
Qiqi, please do not let anything happen to you.
His eyes were bloodshot, his breathing rapid, and his chest rose and fell violently as he nearly lost his sanity and the courage to face reality.
If something really happened, what should he do?
Indescribable anxiety enveloped Cheng Yanzhou’s heart. He slammed his fists against the steering wheel, and the horn blared a harsh, piercing sound.
He sped all the way.
As soon as the car reached the entrance of the mountain road, it was blocked by police tape.
Firefighters were carrying an empty stretcher out from inside. He rushed over like a madman, grabbed a firefighter’s arm, and demanded, “Where is the person inside? Was the driver found? What is his name?”
The firefighter was yanked off-balance by his strength and explained, “The fire at the scene is too intense for rescue, and the vehicle is completely burned out. The driver has not been found yet.”
“Not found means he is still alive.”
Cheng Yanzhou’s voice was hoarse, his eyes bloodshot. “Go look again. Search along the guardrails. He is so smart, he must have saved himself.”
He broke free from the obstruction, trying to cross the police tape, but was pinned down firmly by the police officers.
In the distance, Yu An stood disguised as an onlooker among the crowd. Watching Cheng Yanzhou lose control, he quietly gripped the phone in his pocket.
Shen Qi had just sent a message saying he had already boarded a plane to a neighboring province. Barring any accidents, after two transfers, he would arrive in the United States the day after tomorrow.
At the accident scene.
Cheng Yanzhou sat on pins and needles, staring at the fire that had yet to be completely extinguished, even his fingertips trembling.
His phone suddenly slipped from his pocket, the screen lighting up and accidentally opening their chat interface.
That message—[When you get back, can we talk?]—was still sitting in the draft box.
Even his heart was trembling, and he could only repeat to himself over and over.
Impossible. How could his Qiqi meet with an accident?
He was so careful, so smart, always so well-behaved and never causing anyone worry. How could he possibly get into a car accident?
The booster drugs had not fully taken effect yet; he had not waited for Shen Qi to undergo secondary sex differentiation, had not kept him by his side, and had not confessed his love for him yet.
He cannot just die like this.
“It must be fake,” he muttered under his breath, his fingertips turning white from the pressure. “Shen Qi, you cannot have anything happen to you. Absolutely not.”
Three days later, the police investigation results were officially released.
Cheng Yanzhou had not closed his eyes for three days, and he looked terrible right now.
Unshaven stubble gave his jaw a dark, bruised look, his gaze was unfocused, and his hair was no longer meticulously neat. He looked both haggard and pathetic.
But he had no mind to care about any of that. The blow of Shen Qi’s disappearance was simply too heavy; there was not a single moment he did not dwell on the possibility that Shen Qi might actually be dead.
Just after finishing a phone call, he rubbed his brow in frustration. The investigation team he dispatched had not brought back a shred of useful information.
It was all the same nonsense: the security cameras on the accident section of the road were broken, there were no eyewitnesses, and no records of Shen Qi could be found in any subsequent hotels or public transportation systems.
They even claimed that vehicle registration information and downtown surveillance confirmed the driver was indeed Shen Qi, telling him to accept condolences and mourn properly.
Mourn your grandad.
He was forced to look down at the document sent by the police station.
An investigation opinion report.
Sitting in the empty office, his fingertips pinched that thin piece of paper that could deliver the final verdict on reality, the edges crumpled from his grip.
Every single word on it was like a sharp needle, stabbing into his heart over and over again.
[The car accident resulted in one fatality. Deceased: Shen Qi, 24 years old, male Beta. Phone wreckage registered under Shen Qi was recovered at the scene; owner identity confirmed after data recovery. Combined with vehicle registration information and accident traces, it has been determined that the vehicle lost control and plunged off a cliff due to disrepair. Driver Shen Qi tragically died due to the excessive fire, and the remains are unrecognizable.]
Cheng Yanzhou read it word for word, and let out a dry, angry laugh.
What kind of bullshit was this?
Suddenly, he heard his secretary’s anxious voice coming from outside the door.
“Sir, you really cannot go in without an appointment. Sir.”
Following that, the office door was shoved open violently.
Shen Wanli rushed in holding a crumpled insurance policy, his face full of anger, spittle flying directly onto the desk in front of Cheng Yanzhou.
He was Shen Qi’s father.
“President Cheng, you refuse to answer my calls no matter what, so do not blame me for not giving you face. My son is gone, but the insurance money has to be paid, right? You have been married to Shen Qi for three years, and even if you did not pamper him or give him much money, you still forced him to honestly work for you for three years. Now that he is gone, as his husband, you had better give me his death benefit insurance payout.”
The visitor was aggressive, showing not an ounce of decency, wearing a sharp and petty expression. Anyone listening would only hear his demand for money. When mentioning his own son’s death, there was not a single shred of sorrow.
That hideous face made people sick.
Cheng Yanzhou’s stomach, which had not eaten much of anything, churned violently after listening to him.
Lifting his head, his eyes were bloodshot as he stared deeply at this nominal father-in-law, suddenly letting out a cold scoff, his voice as raspy as sandpaper rubbing together.
“Get out.”
His tone was low, yet it radiated an endless sense of oppression.
He knew Shen Wanli’s character all too well.
The Shen family used to be scholars. Shen Qi’s grandfather and his own father had met at a poetry gathering and became kindred spirits, which was why they arranged the childhood betrothal.
But ever since this man took charge of the Shen family, his dissolute lifestyle squandered away the family fortune, and the once-praised scholarly family declined from then on.
After Shen Qi’s grandfather and mother passed away one after another, Shen Wanli immediately moved his mistress into the house, and kept using that childhood betrothal to shamelessly demand that Cheng Yanzhou marry his son Shen Qi, thinking he could climb up a high branch through it.
This was actually one of the reasons Cheng Yanzhou married Shen Qi in the first place.
So Shen Qi’s submissive and obedient behavior had a reason. Entering the family with such a background, being looked down upon was normal.
Thus, he was willing to lower his head. As a Beta, he was willing to play the role of a wife.
Yet Cheng Yanzhou had never actually cared about those things. During the first year of living in mutual respect with Shen Qi, he was gradually drawn step-by-step to Shen Qi’s cuteness, stubbornness, diligence, and bravery. When he realized he had fallen in love with the other person, he was driven by poor expression skills and a sudden awakening pheromone mania to deliberately distance himself.
He had always known that Shen Qi never resented or made a fuss, doing his absolute best within his identity. He would care for Cheng Yanzhou as always, and work hard at the company without taking unearned wages.
He also knew that Shen Qi was frequently pressured by Shen Wanli for money, squeezed under the identity of a father.
He even knew that Shen Qi had never given the Cheng family’s money to Shen Wanli, always sending his own earnings instead, stubborn and heartbreakingly endearing.
Because of this, he did not need to give Shen Wanli any face at all.
An old bastard with a cheap backbone, sucking his own son’s blood for half a lifetime, and now having the nerve to come here and make a scene.
Without realizing it, Cheng Yanzhou had thought of a lot, and his heart began to ache numbly once more.
Shen Qi must have had a very hard time living in the Shen family.
“What do you mean?”
Shen Wanli was stunned by the scolding, losing his footing for a second. After mumbling for a moment, he puffed up his chest again to put on a false front, stepping forward and reaching out to grab Cheng Yanzhou’s collar.
“Shen Qi is my son. His insurance payout belongs to me by right. Do not even think about swallowing it all yourself.”
Cheng Yanzhou could not be bothered to entangle with him. He secretly released his S-class pheromones to suppress the unruly Shen Wanli while pressing the security desk button at the same time.
Within two minutes, two security guards rushed in just in time to stop Shen Wanli, half-pushing and half-shoving him out of the office.
The latter was still cursing as he was taken away, using crude and unprintable language. Fortunately, the secretary was sensible enough to clear out the surrounding employees in advance and open the backup passage to escort people away, preventing those remarks from reaching the ears of the subordinates downstairs.
The moment the door closed, Cheng Yanzhou violently swept the documents off the desk, sending his pen and glass cup shattering into pieces.
Not out of anger toward Shen Wanli, but because of Shen Qi.
Panting, he turned his head to stare out the window, his mind filled entirely with what the police called unrecognizable remains and the flat tone of Shen Qi’s final phone call.
Qiqi, where on earth are you?
Panic burned like fire in his chest.