The car sped along the highway.
The corners of his mouth drooped deeply, and he blinked hard, his dense eyelashes dispersing the moisture.
Qin Yaodong sat in the front passenger seat, sizing him up through the rearview mirror without a trace. He noticed Qin Yize’s reddened eye rims, an expression unseen for nearly ten years that forced an incredulous, low chuckle out of him:
“Do you really not remember me?”
Qin Yize stiffened his neck, turning his face away to avoid looking at him.
Qin Yize finally reacted: “It has nothing to do with Brother!” he shouted angrily.
With a cold chuckle, Qin Yaodong sat up straight and muttered disdainfully, “…You’re sure enthusiastic about calling him ‘Brother’. What kind of soul-stealing soup did that kid feed you to make you so blindly devoted?”
Qin Yize ignored him, stiffening his neck once again, turning his face away with reddened eyes.
This posture made Qin Yaodong’s heart burn with anger, leaving him with no choice but to vent his frustration on the bodyguards: “What about the surveillance from when he went to the jiu-jitsu gym that day? Haven’t they found it yet?!”
“It was pouring rain that day, everyone had umbrellas, and the cameras didn’t capture things very clearly. Besides, the jiu-jitsu gym has three exits, so… we’re still investigating.”
“Tell them to hurry up!”
“Alright.”
About an hour later, the car exited the highway and gradually drove into the bustling metropolis. The fake child unassumingly sized up the shop signs along the street, noticing two characters repeatedly appearing: “Shencheng”.
He silently noted it down in his heart, pondering over finding a chance to call his brother and report his location… But soon, he realized: he didn’t seem to remember his brother’s phone number.
The fake child couldn’t help drooping his mouth, his mood turning even more depressed.
Before long, the car drove into a villa area. The bodyguards pinned Qin Yize’s arms from left and right, bringing him to a certain room on the third floor. The room was very spacious and exquisitely decorated, with plush carpeting on the floor. Outside the light-colored curtains, the sun showed signs of fatigue, slowly sinking into the steel and concrete skyline.
Qin Yaodong made a phone call on the first floor.
The bodyguards walked down the curved staircase and guarded the front and back main doors. Qin Yize unassumingly gripped the staircase railing and looked down, seeing Qin Yaodong pacing back and forth in the living room with his hands on his hips, his voice sounding somewhat exhausted: “Yeah, I’m back, here in Qinghu…”
“He had a bit of a minor problem. Tomorrow I have to take him to the hospital for a checkup, it’ll delay things for a day or two… His mom is abroad, she won’t be back until tomorrow at the earliest, distant water can’t put out a nearby fire! If you’re bored, go shopping with friends… Just leave Xiaofeng to the nanny! He has several advanced classes to attend, how could that get in your way? …Alright, alright, I’ll go over tomorrow afternoon to keep you company, okay?”
“Xiaofeng”—Qin Yize caught this name, which seemed somewhat familiar. He furrowed his brows, attempting to search his memory for anything related to this person, but still couldn’t recall a thing.
At this moment, Qin Yaodong hung up the phone, turned around and sat on the sofa, pondering for a moment before dialing another string of numbers.
This time, there was a bit more rigidity in his tone.
“Hello, where are you? …Singapore. Can you return to Shencheng tomorrow? Your son is in trouble.”
“I didn’t say he isn’t my son, stop nitpicking words, okay? Do you care about him at all, don’t you even want to know what happened to him?!”
“Anyway, come back tomorrow. I’m planning to take him to get his head checked, I’ll send you the hospital room number directly then… I already told you his injury has nothing to do with me! He’s not a three-year-old kid, do you expect me to watch him every single day?!…”
This impatient tone was also very familiar; Qin Yize felt he had heard it many times before. The person on the other end of the phone must be Mom… he thought. That once happy and harmonious family in the photo had really drifted apart after all.
Looking downstairs thoughtfully, he noticed Qin Yaodong sitting on the sofa with his back to the stairs. A flash of inspiration crossed his mind; the fake child immediately wore a hopeful look, tiptoed carefully, and walked downstairs silently along the stairs.
Outside the door, a bodyguard was on the phone talking as he walked in: “Found it? Good, I’ll tell the boss…”
Raising his head, the two stared at each other in blank dismay. The fake child instantly stood at attention, straightened his face, acted as if nothing had happened, and turned around unconcernedly to walk back.
“Boss…” The bodyguard was dumbfounded, forgetting even to hang up his phone: “Just now your son tried to sneak out.”
Looking at that straight back, Qin Yaodong rubbed his brow, both amused and exasperated, and instructed: “Go, supervise him back to his room, and by the way, lock the door from the outside. Absolutely don’t let him run away.”
“Alright.” The bodyguard obediently followed him up.
Yan Jun’s phone kept ringing.
There was also a message from Yuan Siqi: “Boss, you’re skipping class, aren’t you afraid of getting a disciplinary demerit?”
Lin He asked instead: “I heard the Chihuahua mention Qin Yize. What’s up, do you have a conflict with him?”
Flickering out of WeChat with an irritable mind, Yan Jun tapped open his call log: it was neatly lined up with six missed calls, the first four from the Chihuahua Luo Siyin, and the last two from his mother.
…Shit.
Tapping open his inbox again, his mother had sent two text messages: Xiaojun, call Mom back. Teacher Luo just said you left early, what’s going on?
Nothing much. Yan Jun finally plucked up his courage and replied with a stiff upper hand: Mom, I just have some personal business. I’ll go to class normally tomorrow, you don’t need to worry.
Checking the time, it was already 5:30 PM. Granny was home alone, and he hadn’t left any food at noon… Gritting his teeth, Yan Jun could only flip open his contacts list and call Uncle Wu: “Uncle, I’m out tonight and won’t be able to come back for a while. Can Granny go to your place for dinner?”
“Of course she can!” Uncle Wu agreed readily, though his tone revealed worry: “Say… did you go looking for Xiao Shu? His biological father came to claim him, no matter how reluctant you are, it’s not good to forcefully keep him. Besides, his dad looks very wealthy, Xiao Shu’s head will definitely get better medical treatment…”
Uncle Wu choked for a few seconds, having no choice but to begrudgingly swallow the rest of his words: “…Alright then. Just be careful and don’t come back too late.”
Hanging up the phone, Yan Jun raised his eyes to look at the setting sun in the distance, took a deep breath with a solemn expression, his fingers trembling faintly.
What on earth did he want to do?
That person was Qin Yize, the school’s top student, the sworn enemy who had beaten you up once. When the car accident just happened, didn’t you feel like the sky was falling, didn’t your head hurt wondering what to do? …Now it’s fine, his dad took him away, why bother going through all kinds of trouble to chase after him to this city?
But… whenever he thought of that panicked “Brother” when Xiao Shu was forcefully taken away, and those people’s rough actions, Yan Jun couldn’t convince himself to let him leave Jinghe Road in such a helpless state.
…Right, “helpless.” He isn’t Qin Yize right now; he’s Xiao Shu, a dazed little brat who only knows how to eat and play. Encountering this kind of thing abruptly… he must be really scared right now, right?
Once night fell, he could make his move.
Summer nights turned dark very slowly, remaining bright until it finally turned pitch black at 8 PM. Yan Jun hadn’t eaten dinner, but he didn’t feel hungry at all; his eyes were solely and intently hidden behind a pillar, sizing up the movements of the residential compound’s security patrols across the railing.
After the patrol team passed by, he quietly came under a tree, easily scaling the railing with the cover of tree branches and landing silently on the ground.
Suppressing his racing heartbeat, Yan Jun carefully circled around to the back courtyard of the villa, observing the brightly lit rooms through the iron railing.
The night was very quiet, the compound was dead silent, and there was no sound inside the house either… Yan Jun tangledly looked at the second floor, then looked at the third floor, cursing in his heart: This little bastard, did he compromise so quickly? Not even making a fuss?
Finding a hidden spot to climb into the yard, he darted quickly to the base of the wall and raised his head to search for a climbing route.
Steadying his mind, he clenched his teeth, hooked his leg over the balcony edge, and quickly climbed up to the second floor. Following that, he repeated the trick, standing on the railing to grasp the architectural lines, climbing silently upward in the dark, and landing lightly on the third-floor balcony!
The room only had its curtains drawn halfway, so the moment Yan Jun poked his head in, he saw Qin Yize sitting cross-legged on the floor.
Facing the glass door, his hands pulling several different-colored bedsheets, he was furrowing his brows with a cold expression as he tied them together. Seeing this scene, Yan Jun’s breathing abruptly stopped, turning instead into a defeated, weary smile as he knocked on the glass door: “…Xiao Shu.”
The kid still remembered to lower his voice, carefully opening the glass door to let his brother in. As soon as Yan Jun went in, he pulled back his bangs, nervously examining that terrifying bruise: “Fuck, why did you bump here again?! …Does it hurt?”
“It hurts!” Enduring it all afternoon, the fake child grabbed his hand, moisture quickly welling up in the depths of his eyes: “They hit so hard, I almost passed out.”
Yan Jun bit his teeth, words failing him for a moment while his angry brain retained a shred of calm: “Did your dad just leave you alone like this? Did he say anything about taking you to see a doctor, or helping you apply bruise ointment?”
“No…” The fake child was about to be driven to tears of grievance, grabbing his hand and refusing to let go: “He’s only taking me to the hospital tomorrow, he didn’t even pay attention to me during evening dinner, just sent a boxed meal in… Brother, is he really my dad?”
This… Yan Jun was speechless, having no choice but to pull his head over and gently massage it.
The fake child leaned on his shoulder, still muttering: “I heard him on the phone… He seems to have another kid named Xiaofeng. His new wife is also in this city, and he’s going over tomorrow afternoon to stay with her… Since that’s the case, he should just focus on spending time with his new wife and new kid, why drag me over here for what?”
While grumbling, he tied the bedsheets together and pulled them tight with force. Watching his venting-like movements, Yan Jun picked up the bedsheet and instead asked: “Are you planning to braid these into a rope and climb down from the balcony?”
“Yeah!” Mentioning escape, Qin Yize instantly perked up, showing off the long bedsheet rope to him: “I braided three strips, nearly six meters long, it can definitely reach the first floor! Brother, let’s escape back together. I don’t want to be with that person, he doesn’t care about me at all… Let’s go back to Jinghe Road and let Big Aunt make the decision for me. I’ll live at your house from now on and won’t go anywhere!”
“But…” Yan Jun looked at him with tangled feelings. “He is your dad after all. If it really comes down to fighting over you, no one can win against him.”
“So what?” Qin Yize pouted with resentment, and for a fleeting moment, the resentment in the depths of his eyes seemed to take physical form. “He could leave me to live alone and ignore me for so long, can’t I choose my own family?”
Yan Jun was instantly left speechless.
“I just want to be with you…” The fake child stubbornly stared, his eyes covered with a layer of mist, full of grievance and stubbornness. “He’s not my dad, I don’t remember him, I only remember you! Brother, are you abandoning me too?”
The single sentence made Yan Jun’s blood surge. Gritting his teeth, he reached out and grabbed Qin Yize’s wrist, dragging him quickly out onto the balcony.
Nimbly tying one end of the bedsheet to the railing and tossing the other end down, Yan Jun lowered his voice to give meticulous instructions: “There are many protrusions on this wall, remember to step firmly when you go down, don’t rush! Let’s sneak out, rush back to Pingcheng tonight, and then figure out a way to negotiate with your dad…”
“Okay!” Qin Yize looked at him with bright eyes, his eyes seemingly holding stars. “If he doesn’t budge, we’ll sue him! Sue him for abandonment until he compromises!”
This naive remark amused Yan Jun for a second, but his face immediately straightened again as he helped him cross the railing: “You go down first, I’ll cover the rear!”
“Yeah!” Qin Yize was indeed worthy of having practiced judo, his movements quite agile. He wrapped the bedsheet around the webbing of his thumb a turn, gripped it tightly, extended his long legs downward, found firm footing on the wall protrusions, and inched downward bit by bit.
Qin Yize only had time to scream in shock: “Bro…” before his grip suddenly slipped, and he fell heavily to the ground. His head smashed dully into the lawn, and he instantly passed out.
Yan Jun’s breathing stopped abruptly; in that instant, his mind went blank, and involuntarily, he jumped down as well.