Did Ning Shao run away?
No. She had never witnessed anything like this before. Even with the door between them, the stench of blood flooding her nostrils was so overpowering that she felt like throwing up. Her stomach churned. Endless blood seemed to blot out her vision, and after only a couple of steps, she stumbled forward.
Lin Yan rushed to her in an instant. His arm swept easily around her slender waist and pulled her into his embrace.
Blood had splattered across him. Ning Shao, whose weight fell against his chest, felt as if she had plunged into a sea of blood. Instinctively, she tried to pull away, but the arm around her waist was like cement. She couldn’t push it off—not even if she had been calm.
Through their thin school uniforms, she could hear his heart pounding violently.
Lin Yan apologized in a pitiful, abject voice, his words catching as if he were crying. It sounded as though he was begging her forgiveness—or trying to repair his image in her eyes.
“I’m s-sorry, Ning Shao… Please don’t be afraid of me, okay?”
The facade he had worn all these years had completely crumbled in Ning Shao’s eyes.
Ning Shao was afraid of him, but even more than that, she was lost.
She feared Lin Yan’s terrifying methods; what confused her was her own future.
She had been the one to provoke him. If she ever tried to break up with him, would he kill her the way he had Gu Fengsheng?
*
That was where the memory ended.
Everything that happened afterward seemed to be hidden behind a dark, murky veil.
She only remembered learning from her homeroom teacher the next day that Gu Fengsheng had been attacked by thugs on his way home and sent to the hospital. His parents had already completed the paperwork to withdraw him from school.
After that, Ning Shao never saw Gu Fengsheng again.
Gu Fengsheng’s classmates called him a “rich kid,” so it was clear his family was well-off. He could have reported Lin Yan to the police; his injuries were serious enough to land Lin Yan in jail for a long time. But he hadn’t.
Ning Shao wasn’t stupid. She knew perfectly well that Lin Yan’s family had covered it up.
Just as they had when Lin Yan transferred from military school. She had heard he’d stabbed a student in the eye with a compass, nearly piercing the student’s brain and killing him.
And even so, Lin Yan’s only punishment had been to transfer schools.
“A Shao? A Shao!” Li An’an called.
Ning Shao pulled herself out of the memory and returned to the present. She met Li An’an’s eyes, reddened with worry. Only then did her trembling body slowly settle. She forced a bitter smile.
“I’m fine. I’m just a little tired.”
Lin Yan was dead. None of those things could happen again. She shouldn’t let them affect her.
She kept reassuring herself, trying to drive every negative emotion from her body.
Seeing her like this, Li An’an felt remorseful and guilty. If she hadn’t suggested coming here, A Shao wouldn’t have dragged herself here while sick.
She was about to say something, but Ning Shao spoke first. “Let’s go in. It’s late.”
It wasn’t actually late. They had agreed to meet at noon, and it was only ten now—two hours early. They were probably the first to arrive.
“Ning Shao.”
Just then, a man’s low voice came from behind them. Ning Shao turned a moment after Li An’an did. She heard her friend exclaim in surprise:
“You… Gu Fengsheng?”
Ning Shao turned and saw the person behind them.
He was sitting in a wheelchair. He was around their age, with a tall, slender build and dark hair falling over his shoulders. His features were striking, glasses resting across the bridge of his nose, and a gloomy air hung around him.
Ning Shao was taken aback.
The Gu Fengsheng before her was nothing like the boy she had known in high school.
Back then, Gu Fengsheng had been flamboyant and full of life, like the summer sun, always turning toward the light.
Looking more closely, Ning Shao noticed something wrong with his right eye.
Even through the thin lenses, it was clear that his right eye had the lifeless look of an inanimate object. Its pupil stayed fixed in the center, unable to move like the one in his left eye.
“It’s a prosthetic eye.” Gu Fengsheng noticed her gaze. He took off his glasses, tapped his right eye with a fingertip, and explained with a smile.
Ning Shao quickly looked away. “It’s been a long time.”
She wasn’t sure whether he had realized she was there the day Lin Yan tortured him. That memory was too terrible; she could barely recall it. But after living this long, she understood that everyone had scars of their own. When outsiders touched them, it only hurt twice as much.
Gu Fengsheng didn’t put his glasses back on. In fact, he wasn’t nearsighted. He wore them to make his prosthetic eye look more realistic and harder to identify.
He lifted his gaze toward the person a few steps away—Ning Shao.
Compared with everyone else, she was still just as she had been in high school. She hadn’t changed much.
“Brother Fengsheng[1]In Chinese forms of address, “Brother” can express familiarity or respect toward a male acquaintance, without implying a biological sibling relationship. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3733358_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3733358_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, you’re here early too.” Li An’an was friendly with everyone in class, including Gu Fengsheng, but Ning Shao was the one she was closest to.
Gu Fengsheng’s eyes, fixed on Ning Shao, flickered. He slowly looked away and turned to Li An’an, answering with a smile, “Yeah. Let’s go sit in the private room first. Have you two had breakfast? I ordered some food. You should try it.”
With that, he wheeled himself into the private room beside them.
Ning Shao and Li An’an exchanged a glance, then followed him inside.
The hotel was five-star, its decor luxurious and elegant. It stood in the heart of the city, where every inch of land was worth a fortune. Jiangcheng had other five-star hotels, but this one was clearly among the top three.
Inside the private room stood a round redwood dining table. A thick, patterned carpet covered the floor, and through the floor-to-ceiling windows they could see the river. A long, elevated road stretched across it, cars streaming back and forth.
Ning Shao had assumed this would be an ordinary class reunion. She hadn’t expected the meal to be somewhere so lavish. The top floor of the hotel was reserved for VIPs; it wasn’t open to just anyone.
What made her even more uncomfortable was Gu Fengsheng’s gaze.
It wasn’t her imagination. Ever since they’d met, Gu Fengsheng’s eyes kept drifting toward her, as if by chance. Whenever Ning Shao looked his way, he would casually turn his gaze aside.
She wasn’t the only one who noticed. Li An’an, standing beside her, had picked up on it too. Sensing A Shao’s discomfort, she deliberately struck up a conversation with Gu Fengsheng.
For no apparent reason, Gu Fengsheng brought up Lin Yan himself.
“I heard Lin Yan died in a car accident. Did you know, Ning Shao?”
At the sound of Lin Yan’s name, Ning Shao’s hand froze as she lifted her water glass. Water sloshed over the rim and splashed onto the web of her thumb, but fortunately it was only lukewarm.
Apart from when they had first met, Ning Shao no longer avoided his gaze. She raised her head and looked at him.
Li An’an, who had been trying to keep the mood light, fell silent when he mentioned that name. Her brows furrowed.
Whatever else, A Shao and Lin Yan had been in a relationship. Gu Fengsheng was plainly rubbing salt in her wounds.
Ning Shao didn’t look as sad as An’an had expected. She remained calm, though a trace of surprise had entered her eyes.
She hadn’t expected Gu Fengsheng to bring up Lin Yan himself. After all, he had been the one who suffered real harm.
“I know,” Ning Shao said, nodding.
Gu Fengsheng pulled out a napkin and handed it to her. His eyes curved as he said, “I heard you were with him because he forced you into it. But at least he’s dead now. You don’t have to put up with him bothering you anymore.”
References[+]