Imprisoned
Though he cooperated fully, he still took a beating. They kicked him hard in the stomach, then hauled him off toward the prison.
Song Bai didn’t ask what crime he’d committed or what would happen to him. He just sat silently in the back, with a police officer beside him. The driver glanced at him in the rearview mirror, then shook his head in disbelief. “Is it really him? They haven’t got the wrong guy, have they? A kid like that, even if you gave him all the nerve in the world, wouldn’t dare lay a finger on the living Yama.”
The officer beside him took a drag on his cigarette and gave Song Bai a sideways glance, then said irritably, “No mistake. We’ve had people watching him all night. What a nightmare, running around all night like that. I gotta say, kid, you’ve got some serious guts. Are you tired of living or what? You actually dared to hit him!”
Song Bai’s stomach hurt terribly. He gripped the seat so tightly his fingertips turned white, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He couldn’t make out what they were saying. All he could hear was a buzzing in his head. But to the two officers, he looked so terrified he couldn’t even speak.
“Why weren’t you scared when you did it? You might as well end it yourself. Once you’re in that man’s hands, you’re going to…”
“Old Wu!” the driver snapped, cutting him off. The other man paused, then quickly fell silent.
Song Bai was barely conscious. They dragged him straight into a solitary cell. He collapsed onto the floor and passed out.
Song Bai felt as if he were wrapped in cotton, with nothing to hold on to. One moment his whole body was burning, the next he was freezing. It was as if all the air had been sucked away. He gasped desperately, but no oxygen reached his lungs…
Splash! A basin of ice water came pouring down over his head. Song Bai curled up, shivering.
So… cold…
“You’ve got some nerve, kid. Still sleeping at a time like this? Don’t worry, you’ll probably be sleeping for good before long.” The speaker was a guard. He grabbed Song Bai and hauled him up.
Song Bai was so light that the guard barely had to exert himself to drag him outside. Every so often, he kicked him. “Stand up straight, damn it!”
It took Song Bai a long while to regain even a little feeling. All he could think about was how awful he felt.
They took him to an interrogation room, a square space with nothing but a table and a few chairs. Three men were inside, and they looked distinctly surprised when they saw Song Bai.
“That’s him?”
“Brought in before dawn. No doubt about it.” The guard shoved him into the room, then cuffed his hands to a chair. Song Bai was quite touched that he even got a chair to sit in.
He knew all three men. They were the spoiled rich kids who’d run wild with Qiao Yi since childhood. Back when Qiao Yi had secretly imprisoned Qi Jun, these three had done plenty to help him.
The men across from him sat down too, sizing up the boy whose complexion had grown deathly pale.
As soon as word got out last night that Qiao Yi had been taken to the hospital, everyone was stunned. Anyone could be hit, but not this guy! If anything happened to him, wouldn’t the whole family be dragged into it and made to pay with their lives? So they quickly dug up everything they could about Song Bai, including his ancestors going back eighteen generations. They knew more than Song Bai did himself.
The illegitimate son of a nouveau riche, kicked out of his home and sunk to the lowest depths as a male prostitute. They’d expected some heavily made-up slut, but seeing him in person, he didn’t quite fit the picture.
Song Bai was beautiful, with a blend of youthful innocence and grown-man composure. He sat quietly, his brow faintly furrowed, but without a hint of panic. In fact, he seemed quite calm. It was his eyes in particular that drew Chen Zhi in the moment he saw them.
“You’re Song Bai?” Zhang Suyu asked. He had a crew cut and a fairly decent-looking face.
Song Bai gave a quiet “Mm,” clearly not in the mood to say more.
“You’ve got some nerve, still acting so cocky at a time like this.” Liu Fei gave a cold laugh. He’d served in the military and knew how to fight. He was no stranger to dirty tactics.
Song Bai glanced at him, then asked calmly, “Is he dead?”
The three men drew in a sharp breath. None of them had expected him to say that.
Song Bai blinked, then sighed regretfully. “Looks like he didn’t quite die. What a shame. If I’d known, I would’ve hit him one more time…”
In an instant, Song Bai and the chair were kicked across the room. He couldn’t catch his breath. A surge of blood rose in his throat, and he coughed it up.
“Don’t kill him!” Chen Zhi hurriedly stopped Zhang Suyu, who was about to go after him again. “We’ll have a hell of a time explaining that.”
Song Bai raised his eyes and stared coldly at Zhang Suyu, a hint of mockery on his lips.
“Why did you hit Qiao Yi, the man you attacked last night?” Chen Zhi asked, keeping his cool. He motioned for Liu Fei to keep Zhang Suyu in check, then walked over and helped Song Bai sit upright.
Song Bai turned his head and spat out the blood. “He disgusted me.”
“Disgusted you? You’re a whore who’s been ridden by who knows how many men, and you dare call him disgusting…”
Song Bai looked at Zhang Suyu and enunciated each word. “Yes. He disgusts me. Just like being in the same room with you makes me sick.”
“Get off me! I’ll kick him to death!” Zhang Suyu sprang to his feet. Liu Fei could barely hold him back.
“You’ve been trying to provoke us this whole time. Why?” Chen Zhi was renowned among the princelings for his intelligence. He frowned at Song Bai. “You don’t want to live?”
“I’m tired of living. I want to die.” Song Bai’s chest hurt terribly. Zhang Suyu had put his full weight behind that kick, and after all the torment of the past day and night, Song Bai’s mind was growing hazier by the minute. He mumbled, “If you’ve got the guts, kill me.”
Looking at them is really sickening. So sickening… I don’t even want to live anymore.
In the end, Song Bai still didn’t die. When he came to again, he was no longer in prison. The room was filled with familiar furnishings, familiar in a way that made his blood run cold.
This was the apartment Qi Jun had rented when he was alive.
Song Bai felt cold all over. He lay on the bed, his hand cuffed to the headboard. The moment he moved, he felt something cold around his neck. Looking down, he saw a golden chain wrapped around it. The other end of the chain…
Following it with his eyes, he saw Qiao Yi, his head still wrapped in bandages.
Song Bai felt like throwing up blood all over again. Qiao Yi had really chained him up like a pet.
Qiao Yi sat nearby, staring straight at Song Bai without even blinking. Song Bai turned his face away in disgust, but the next instant, Qiao Yi grabbed his chin and forced him to look back.
“Yes, just like that. When you furrow your brow, you look like him. Don’t move!” Qiao Yi returned to his seat and watched Song Bai like a monk in deep meditation.
Song Bai and Qi Jun didn’t look alike at all, not in their faces or their builds. There was no resemblance whatsoever. If he had to name one thing they shared, it was that their eyebrows had a vaguely similar shape.
He couldn’t understand why Qiao Yi thought he looked like Qi Jun. Maybe it was true what people said: the mentally ill could see things other people couldn’t.
Song Bai couldn’t be bothered with him. He simply closed his eyes, but Qiao Yi immediately forced them open again. “Don’t close your eyes!” he snarled.
“Qiao Yi, don’t push me!” Song Bai had had enough. “I’m not Qi Jun! Look at me. I’m not Qi Jun at all!”
“I know…” Qiao Yi seemed to lose all his strength. He stumbled, then sat on the sofa hugging his knees, like a child with nowhere to go. “I know… Qi Jun ran away. I can’t find him, no matter what I do. He sent you to take his place, didn’t he? Could you go tell him for me? Tell him I’ll treat him well from now on. Ask him to come back…”
Song Bai’s brow furrowed deeply. At last, he sighed. “Qiao Yi, we need to talk.”
“Mm?” Qiao Yi tilted his head, looking so obedient that no one would have believed this beautiful, clean-cut boy was the violent, bloodthirsty living Yama, Qiao Yi.
Setting Qiao Yi’s personality aside, he really was a gift from heaven.
“I need some water, Qiao Yi. I’m really thirsty.” Song Bai tried to stay calm. His mouth still tasted of blood, and after going a whole day without a drop of water, his body was in terrible shape.
Qiao Yi’s moods changed at the drop of a hat. One moment he’d been furious, but now he carefully helped Song Bai drink. When Song Bai coughed twice, Qiao Yi hurriedly rubbed his back.
After a long while, they had both calmed down. Song Bai took a deep breath. “Qiao Yi, Qi Jun is dead. He fell from Kunyuan Building. He’s dead.”
Qiao Yi stared at Song Bai, uncharacteristically quiet. Only after a long pause did he spit out the words, one at a time. “You’re. Lying. To. Me.”
“You know it’s true,” Song Bai said.
Crack!
Qiao Yi flung the cup in his hand. It flew past Song Bai’s cheek and smashed against the wall behind him. Glass shards burst everywhere, and one grazed Song Bai’s cheek again. His face stung, then blood welled from the cut.
Song Bai narrowed his eyes. “He’s dead. You drove him to it. You forced him to be with you. You forced him to sleep with you. You forced him to give up everything he wanted. You threatened his family. He couldn’t take it anymore, and that’s why he died. Qiao Yi, you killed him.”
“I didn’t… I didn’t! It wasn’t me. He… he wouldn’t…”
“Qiao Yi, I have to leave. Being with you makes me sick. Either let me go now, or let me die.”
“I won’t let you go. You’re mine. How could you leave me? What’s mine belongs by my side. How can it leave?” Qiao Yi began to spiral into confusion again.
Song Bai gave a cold laugh. He could feel his body growing colder and colder. The moment he’d run into Qiao Yi again, he’d known he wouldn’t be able to live much longer.
He wondered if, the next time he opened his eyes, he’d be in another life, or if he’d become someone else entirely, forced to eke out an existence in a body that had nothing to do with him.
Blood dripped from his palm, tracing the lines of his hand before falling to the floor. He’d deliberately provoked Qiao Yi into smashing the cup. The instant the glass shattered, he’d grabbed a shard and cut his wrist. All it took was a little courage. It wasn’t even that hard…
“Qiao Yi, why don’t you just die? Wouldn’t the world be so much better without you…” As he closed his eyes, Song Bai murmured the words.
Being alive… was fucking exhausting…