Because it was nearly time to rest, only the faint hallway light was left on in the living room.
In the dim glow, Song Shiyi’s face looked unnaturally pale, like fine porcelain. He seemed to be smiling, yet the darkness in his eyes was filled with malice and indifference.
“You’re insane! How could you bring something so unlucky into the house?”
Lin Nian was furious. Since no one else was around, she didn’t bother to hide the ugly expression on her face. But the last half of her sentence, those unlucky words, still got stuck in her throat.
She didn’t know why, but something about Song Shiyi felt terrifying.
“Wait, where’s Jiaxin? Didn’t he go to see you today?” Lin Nian’s expression changed instantly. She quickly asked, “Why didn’t he come back with you?”
Song Shiyi took out his phone and tapped a recording.
The sound of Song Jiaxin’s hysterical screams filled the room.
“What did you do to him!” Lin Nian’s face twisted in pain. Her hands were trembling, and she had to take several deep breaths before she could force herself to calm down. “He’s your brother. How could you…”
Even now, she was trying to play the emotional card.
Song Shiyi almost admired how thick her skin was.
“Why don’t you guess?” he said with a bright, almost delighted smile, like a mischievous child who had just pulled off a prank.
Lin Nian’s expression darkened further. She was still thinking about what to do when the sound of footsteps came from the stairs.
“What’s all this noise in the middle of the night?”
Song Gucheng’s irritated voice came first, but when he saw Song Shiyi standing there, very much alive, the rest of his words caught in his throat.
For a moment, Song Gucheng didn’t know what to think.
To be honest, his feelings toward Song Shiyi were complicated.
He hated how the boy didn’t know his place, how he kept challenging his authority, and how he had dared to tarnish his reputation in public.
But more than that, he hated that face, so similar to his late wife’s that it felt like a cruel echo carved from the same mold. Every time he saw it, his chest tightened painfully.
Yet now, Song Shiyi was no longer the pitiful, helpless child he had brought home years ago. He had caught the attention of that powerful man, Qin Huai, and more importantly, he held in his hands a piece of land that was crucial to Gu Ye.
The calculating merchant in Song Gucheng instantly awoke. He began to think about how he might take advantage of his second son to gain the greatest possible benefit.
After all, there were no lasting grudges between father and son. He was Song Shiyi’s father. Whatever he told the boy to do, the boy ought to obey.
With that comforting thought, Song Gucheng’s expression softened. He arranged his face into a mask of paternal kindness and smiled as if greeting a long-lost child.
“Shiyi, why are you coming home so late? You haven’t been back these past few days. Where have you been?”
“Mr. Qin asked me to stay with him.” Song Shiyi’s lips curved, his tone gentle and sweet, laced with unspoken implication.
Song Gucheng’s eyes lit up. He could barely contain his excitement.
So his guess had been right all along.
With that kind of relationship, it would be easy to get close to the Qin family.
As for anything else, he didn’t care. He certainly didn’t believe that Mr. Qin could have any real feelings for his son.
He just had to take advantage of the situation while it lasted and squeeze as much benefit from it as possible.
Whether Song Shiyi ended up hurt or broken in the process, well, that wasn’t his concern.
Lin Nian was anxious to the point of panic, but in front of Song Gucheng she had always played the role of the gentle, soft-spoken woman. All she could do now was look pitiful and send pleading glances his way.
Unfortunately, he didn’t even notice her.
Song Shiyi looked at his father’s shifting expression, how warmth flickered with calculation, how kindness hid greed, and his smile deepened. The curve of his lips was too perfect, too bright, almost unable to contain the darkness behind it.
“Dad, on my way home, I even brought you a gift.” His tone was sugary and innocent.
“You didn’t need to bring anything,” Song Gucheng said with an indulgent smile. “You’re my son. Coming home is enough. Why bring gifts? That’s too formal.”
In his mind, he had already interpreted it his own way. The boy wanted to reconcile but couldn’t bring himself to say it directly, so he’d found an excuse, a “gift”, to lower himself gracefully.
“What did you get for me?” he asked, his voice soft with feigned generosity.
“Take a look.”
Song Shiyi pointed toward the object placed in the middle of the living room.
A small urn.
He watched with delight as the color drained from his father’s face, turning from joy to an ashen shade of horror.
“What is that?”
“It’s Mom,” Song Shiyi said quietly, taking a step closer with each word. “You were married to her for so many years. Do you mean to tell me you don’t feel even the slightest connection to her?”
He tilted his head, his voice light, almost teasing. “You’re really asking me what this is?”
His tone was thick with mockery, his eyes glinting with cruel amusement and honeyed sweetness. “If you act like this, Mom will be sad. And when she’s sad, who knows, maybe one of these nights, she’ll come looking for you.”
Then he turned suddenly, his gaze sharp as a blade, toward Lin Nian. “And you too, Aunt Lin.”
“Take it away, take that thing away!”
Song Gucheng clutched at his chest, his face an awful shade of blue, his trembling hand pointing toward the urn.
“Why?” Song Shiyi widened his eyes, his tone dripping with innocence. “When you brought me back, didn’t you say that we should all be together as a family? Isn’t this perfect? Now we’re finally together, Mom, Dad, Brother, and me.”
He lowered his head slightly, counting on his fingers. “Four people. A happy family.”
When he looked back up, his tilted face was half-shrouded in shadow and half bathed in light, the shifting glow making him seem as if he had stepped out of another time entirely.
In that trembling light, Song Gucheng saw, for a fleeting moment, the face of his dead wife overlapping perfectly with that of his son.
“We’ll always be happy,” her voice seemed to echo in his ears, the promise of long ago ringing clear and cruel. “A family of four, together forever.”
The sound struck him like lightning. His chest tightened, his vision darkened, and at last, unable to endure it, he collapsed to the floor.
“Darling!” Lin Nian screamed, rushing to catch him. “Someone! Hurry and help!”
The startled servants, dragged from their sleep by the commotion, came stumbling down the stairs. They hurriedly carried Song Gucheng upstairs and called for the family doctor.
Throughout all of it, no one dared to go near Song Shiyi.
After all, the young master’s mind didn’t seem entirely sound these days.
When the house finally quieted, Song Shiyi brought his palms together, closed his eyes, and bowed slightly toward the urn.
“Poor woman,” he murmured softly. “May you bless me.”
Then, after a moment’s pause, his lips curved again, the prayer turning sharp.
“No. I hope your spirit curses them instead, those who hurt you, those who hurt your child. May none of them find peace.”
The next day, Song Jiaxin came home with his tail between his legs. Before even stepping through the door, he texted one of the maids to make sure the coast was clear.
He didn’t dare face that lunatic head-on ever again.
Last night, it was Qi Xuan who had untied the ropes and secretly let him go. He had even returned Song Jiaxin’s phone to him.
But when Song Jiaxin asked what he and Song Shiyi had talked about, Qi Xuan only smiled faintly and brushed it off, saying they had just exchanged a few casual words.
The vague response made Song Jiaxin uneasy, but he didn’t dare to press further.
Qi Xuan was a dangerous man, one without bottom lines or conscience. Crossing him was the last thing anyone with sense would do.
When Song Jiaxin later asked one of the servants about Song Shiyi’s whereabouts, he learned that the other hadn’t come home at all. Instead, he had gone out to meet Gu Ye.
The autumn wind swept through the streets without pause, whistling sharply through the air. The weather that day was especially cold. Gu Ye’s dark coat flapped violently in the wind, the edges snapping like blades.
He had already handed part of the situation over to Song Gucheng to handle, but that didn’t mean he could sit back and wait. He needed to seize control himself, he would never allow things to spiral out of his grasp.
Finally, in the distance, he saw Song Shiyi’s figure.
The young man was walking slowly, unhurried, as though he had all the time in the world.
In the past, Song Shiyi would have broken into a light run the moment he saw Gu Ye, his eyes bright with attachment and admiration. He would have tilted his face up with a soft smile, leaning obediently into Gu Ye’s chest as if that were the safest place in the world.
Those gestures had once meant nothing to Gu Ye. But now that they were gone, he found their absence strangely unbearable, like an itch under the skin that refused to be soothed.
Yet pride kept him rooted to the spot. He couldn’t bring himself to lower his status or chase after the boy. He merely frowned and waited, his expression controlled, until Song Shiyi finally approached.
“Why are you dressed so lightly?” Gu Ye asked in a tone gentler than usual, his voice carrying a rare warmth. He loosened the scarf around his own neck, bending down slightly, an action that, for him, required swallowing more pride than most people could imagine. He intended to wrap the scarf around Song Shiyi himself.
But before the soft fabric could touch him, Song Shiyi slapped his hand away with a cold, expressionless face.
The sound was sharp in the quiet wind.
Gu Ye froze, but only for a moment. He was too focused on something else to care about the younger man’s defiance.
When he had bent down, the tip of his nose brushed lightly against Song Shiyi’s hair. The faint movement brought with it a subtle scent, delicate and lingering, a mixture of cedarwood and amber.
Gu Ye’s breath caught. That fragrance was not unfamiliar.
Among all the people he knew, only Qin Huai ever used that particular scent.
A flash of realization cut through him like lightning. The faint civility on his face shattered instantly. His expression, once forced into a mask of composure, twisted as storm clouds gathered behind his eyes.
The air between them grew heavy, almost suffocating, and the warmth that had briefly softened his voice vanished completely.
The wind continued to roar through the streets, carrying away the last trace of gentleness, leaving only the tension that thickened like an oncoming downpour.
✦ ✧ ✦
Cresvynia
[Translator]
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ChaptersChapter 1 · He’s in the BookChapter 2 · You Like playing Stand-in, Right?Chapter 3 · This Kind of person is just asking for troubleChapter 4 · Is it so Bloody?Chapter 5 · Let’s Rot togetherChapter 7 · Illegitimate SonChapter 8 · Unfaithful husbandChapter 9 · MemoriesChapter 10 · Silence before stormChapter 11 · Hunt beginsChapter 12 · Nightmare I rememberChapter 13 · Why do they ride on their own heads?Chapter 14 · I forgive myselfChapter 15 · Can you take me in tonight since I’m homeless?Chapter 16 · Mr. Qin, do you like me?Chapter 17 · If you like it, you can have itChapter 18 · Gu Ye, it’s obvious that you also pursue these thingsChapter 19 · If you still can’t let go of Gu Ye, why not give it a try with me?Chapter 20 · He actually made him bow down to that bastard.Chapter 21 · Ruining someone’s future is simply unforgivableChapter 22 · God can’t possibly favor someone like youChapter 23 · UrnChapter 24 · May they die a horrible deathChapter 25 · If you’re broke, stop showing off.Chapter 26 · Kneel before me, begging for mercy.Chapter 27 · The plan succeededChapter 28 Part 1 · This time, the victim is Gu Ye Part 1Chapter 28 Part 2 · This time, the victim is Gu YeChapter 29 · This time, I’ll make full use of youChapter 30 · Educating about the existence of lawsChapter 31 · So who is he now?Chapter 32 · I want to destroy this fake spacetime.Chapter 33 · So, I was himChapter 34 · They’re all crazy, just let me have my wayChapter 35 · I will punish them in the right way.Chapter 36 · I’m already a lunaticChapter 37 · Can you stay by Qin Huai’s side for my sake?Chapter 38 · I’ll grant your requestChapter 39 · Not a pitiful littleChapter 40 · They Both should dieChapter 41 · I want to destroy the empire that Song Gucheng builtChapter 42 · Do you hate me too?Chapter 43 · No one should feel goodChapter 44 · He’ll definitely be the winner in the end!Chapter 45 · Acting is really tiringChapter 46 · I wanted that bastard to disappearChapter 47 · Ready made scapegoatChapter 48 · He’s willing to save themChapter 49 · I’ve come to catch up with youChapter 50 · You stole someone else’s placeChapter 51 · Shiyi, why won’t you save me…Chapter 52 · To make a good life is more importantChapter 53 · Even if you really cheated on me, it doesn’t matterChapter 54 · Finally, I can say goodbye to you completelyChapter 55 · Angel sent by heaven to save himChapter 56 · CEO Gu is a very affectionate personChapter 57 · If you love him, go to jail for himChapter 58 · His most beloved son wanted to kill himChapter 59 · Take good care of our dear fatherChapter 60 · Take back everything that truly belongs to meChapter 61 · He knew that Gu Ye would not let him downChapter 62 · The Song family’s shares must absolutely not be transferred to Song ShiyiChapter 63 · I am no one’s thingChapter 64 · He always knew what kind of person Song Qingwen was.Chapter 65 · FinalChapter 66 · Extra