“You’re looking to die!”
Luo Qifeng’s thunderous roar erupted across the rooftop.
His grip around the knife tightened instantly.
The pain at Shen Siyang’s neck intensified in a flash.
Shen Siyang lowered his eyes, catching a glimpse of blood spreading along the collar of his uniform.
The autumn uniform was white with black trim; against it, the vivid red blood was extraordinarily striking.
Shen Siyang’s brows knitted for a fraction of a second before he quickly smoothed his expression, offering Luo Qifeng a friendly smile: “Calm down, calm down, Uncle Luo. It’s precisely because I value my life so much that I had Sang Xiaoshi call the police.”
“Bull-fucking-shit!” Luo Qifeng snarled. “When the cops get here, I’m taking you down with me!”
Shen Siyang put on a look of sincere regret: “Why take me down with you? That’s such a bad deal. I want my life, and you want money. Calling the police gives me a basic guarantee for my safety. If you give me that peace of mind, I’ll act out a scene with you to squeeze even more money out of Sang Xiaoshi. Doesn’t a deal like that sound much more worthwhile?”
Luo Qifeng glared dead at Shen Siyang, clearly unconvinced: “Back then, you were the one who helped him throw me into prison! Now you’re claiming you’ll help me scam money off him? Do you take me for a damn idiot?”
Shen Siyang let out a helpless sigh: “Like you said, that was back then. To a kid, childhood friendship is bigger than the sky. But once you grow up, things don’t work like that anymore. I heard the inheritance his parents left him back then has multiplied at least a hundredfold in market value over the years. He’s a mega-rich tycoon now. Wouldn’t you say I saved his life back then? Is it too much to ask for something in return for a favor that big? But this guy just plays dumb with me day in and day out—he doesn’t even know how to spell the word ‘gratitude.’ Since he won’t show gratitude on his own, making him spend a little money to save my life is only fair, right?”
Luo Qifeng kept his icy glare fixed on Shen Siyang: “Don’t try to fool me! In that call just now, he sounded terrified for you. If you asked him for money, would he really refuse?”
“That’s what puzzles me too!” Shen Siyang said, sounding utterly exasperated. “Usually, in front of everyone else, he acts like a devoted younger brother to me. But the moment I ask him for money, he develops selective deafness! I’m starting to suspect he’s just putting on a show for others so no one calls him ungrateful. After all, the richer people get, the more they care about their reputation.”
Hearing this, the doubt in Luo Qifeng’s eyes began to flicker and waver.
He stared at Shen Siyang half-believingly for a long while before speaking: “Sounds real nice, but calling the cops means even if I get the money, it’s for nothing. I’d be arrested before I even make it off this roof.”
Shen Siyang smiled with utmost sincerity: “Uncle Luo, with a living, breathing hostage like me in your hands, are you really afraid you won’t be able to leave?”
Luo Qifeng still looked at him with lingering suspicion.
Shen Siyang wasn’t in a rush, maintaining his pleasant smile as he asked: “How much are you planning to ask Sang Xiaoshi for?”
Luo Qifeng stayed silent for a moment before finally replying: “Five million.”
Shen Siyang raised an eyebrow and chuckled: “I can help you get ten times that amount. Once it’s done, you give me five million.”
Luo Qifeng found it hard to believe: “Does he really have that much cash?”
Shen Siyang lamented: “He has way more than that! Why else do you think I’m so pissed? I asked him for just a tiny fraction of it, and he wouldn’t even part with a dime.”
Luo Qifeng was visibly shaken, though still not entirely convinced.
“If he’s that stingy, why do you think you can get fifty million out of him?”
Shen Siyang smiled and tapped his own face: “Reputation, of course. Once the police arrive and this turns into a huge spectacle, if he refuses to spend money to pull me out of your hands, the townspeople will drown him in verbal spit the moment word gets out.”
Although Luo Qifeng didn’t immediately agree, the misgivings in his eyes had clearly dwindled to almost nothing.
Seeing this, Shen Siyang added thoughtfully: “No rush—you have plenty of time to weigh whether you want to cooperate with me. Either way, I have no means of communicating with the outside world now. There’s no one around, I’m unarmed, and you have a knife. If you want to kill me, it’d take you less than a minute.”
Police cars pulled into the campus, quickly evacuating all the students near the old teaching building.
Caution tape was promptly strung around the perimeter.
Several well-trained officers entered the old building. Noticing Sang Xiaoshi tailing closely behind, the lead officer immediately stopped to turn him back.
“Student, stay downstairs and wait. Our colleagues are already setting up the safety air cushion. Trust us, we will do everything in our power to ensure your classmate’s safety.”
Sang Xiaoshi’s expression was colder than ever before, yet facing the police, he tried his absolute best to keep his voice calm and polite: “The kidnapper is doing this to extort money from me. He will definitely demand to negotiate with me.”
Seeing the slight confusion on the officer’s face, he added: “I just turned eighteen and inherited a vast fortune left by my late parents.”
The officer paused in thought, then quickly said: “Stay right behind me. Remember: once we’re up there, do not act on impulse, and do not try to fight the perpetrator. Personal safety always comes first.”
Sang Xiaoshi nodded in agreement.
The rooftop door was pushed open.
Hearing the noise, Luo Qifeng yanked Shen Siyang back another step.
With his back pressed against the edge of the railing, he glared at the incoming police and yelled viciously: “Stay back, all of you! Step any closer and I’ll slit his throat right now!”
The negotiator officer raised a hand, signaling everyone to stop, and began soothing him in a calm voice.
Luo Qifeng refused to listen at all, roaring: “I don’t want to talk to you! Send Sang Xiaoshi to the front!”
Seeing no movement from the crowd after his shout, he tightened his grip on the knife.
Blood visibly trickled down Shen Siyang’s neck, dripping onto his uniform collar and blossoming across the white fabric.
“Send Sang Xiaoshi to the front!” Luo Qifeng roared again.
At the sight of the blood running down Shen Siyang’s neck, a freezing chill ran through Sang Xiaoshi from head to toe, his breathing momentarily stopping.
His face turned darker than ever as he took a stride forward.
Seeing him move, the officer blocking him whispered a warning: “Don’t go too far. Just stand right here with us. Divert his attention by talking to him while our team finds an opportunity to flank him from the side.”
Sang Xiaoshi stepped up beside the officer.
Luo Qifeng quickly tossed a bank card to his feet and ordered: “Transfer fifty million into this card right now! I’m giving you thirty minutes. If the money isn’t in the account in thirty minutes, I’m sending him to meet the King of Hell!”
Sang Xiaoshi didn’t glance at the card even once; from start to finish, his eyes never left Shen Siyang.
Shen Siyang was looking back at him too.
After their eyes met for a moment, Shen Siyang’s gaze slowly trailed downward, landing on the knife pressed against his neck.
After pausing for a few seconds, he looked back up at Sang Xiaoshi and blinked softly twice.
The hand hanging at Sang Xiaoshi’s side curled slightly. Finally averting his gaze, he looked at Luo Qifeng, his voice cold and hard: “I can transfer the money, but throw the knife away first.”
Luo Qifeng sneered with disdain: “I have the hostage in my hands, what right do you have to negotiate terms with me?”
Sang Xiaoshi’s eyes were devoid of warmth, his tone unyielding: “Throw the knife away.”
Just as Luo Qifeng opened his mouth to speak again, Shen Siyang’s lowered voice sounded right in his ear: “I advise you to listen to him. This kid has an unbearable temper lately—he hasn’t even become a big boss yet, but he already acts like a tyrannical, unreasonable CEO. You’ve gotten blood all over my neck. If he gets paranoid thinking I’ll leech off him because of this injury, he really might refuse to pay if he gets upset.”
Luo Qifeng lowered his voice too: “Don’t try to trick me! If I throw the knife away, I’ll be a fish on the chopping block the moment he pays!”
Shen Siyang offered a strategy: “Throw the knife over by the air vent where it’s inconvenient for them to grab. Once you get the money, you can just pick it back up in the chaos.”
Luo Qifeng’s brow furrowed. After staring at Sang Xiaoshi for a long while, he ultimately chose to listen to Shen Siyang.
He tossed the knife toward the nearby air vent, then quickly grabbed Shen Siyang by the throat, pinning him against the railing: “Transfer the money right now!”
One-third of Shen Siyang’s body was suspended out over the edge of the railing.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the safety air cushion and barrier netting set up below, and his long-strained nerves finally relaxed.
Watching Sang Xiaoshi in the distance bend down to pick up the bank card while the police officers exchanged subtle glances.
Shen Siyang let out a soft laugh and whispered in a delightful tone: “What a pity, Uncle Luo. You lost to me once again.”
Luo Qifeng whipped his head around to look at him.
The moment he locked eyes with Shen Siyang’s gleeful, smiling gaze, the humiliation of being tricked into prison ten years ago surged straight to his brain.
He violently squeezed Shen Siyang’s throat, his face flushing dark red as his veins bulged in fury: “What do you mean? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”
Shen Siyang struggled to breathe, yet his smile grew even more uninhibited: “It means, of course that you’ve been played! The kid I’ve held in the palm of my hand and doted on for ten years—you actually thought you could use me to scam money out of him? Cough, cough. Forget five million, don’t even think about getting five cents.”
In an instant, Luo Qifeng felt the blood rush violently backward in his veins. Everything around him became surreal, leaving only Shen Siyang’s smug, taunting smile overlapping before his eyes.
Images of being deceived, beaten, and tackled to the ground by police ten years ago, while countlessly many neighbors pointed fingers—crisscrossed with the scene before his eyes now.
Shen Siyang’s provocative words echoed over and over in his ears.
Luo Qifeng lost control completely: “I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL KILL YOU!!”
With a twisted expression, he gave a violent shove, pushing Shen Siyang completely over the railing.
Shen Siyang’s body was instantly suspended in midair.
In that single instant, the world seemed to freeze in Sang Xiaoshi’s eyes.
Everything around him—the visuals, the noise—faded into a blur, becoming meaningless distractions completely unrelated to him.
Just like ten years ago.
In the entire world, he could only see Shen Siyang.
Except this time, he couldn’t reach Shen Siyang’s hand.
Shen Siyang was falling away from him.
“Brother Siyang.”
“SHEN SIYANG!”
Sang Xiaoshi sprinted toward Shen Siyang at the fastest speed of his life.
Yet he still failed to catch him.
He couldn’t even touch the edge of his clothing.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he leaped off after Shen Siyang.
Their bodies suspended in midair.
The rapid weightlessness of the fall brought a wave of nausea and dizziness.
Shen Siyang’s smile froze the exact second he saw Sang Xiaoshi dive off after him.
Landing on a safety air cushion was far from comfortable.
Their bodies sank deep into it, leaving their limbs limp and powerless.
The sudden dizziness from falling from such a height left his vision blurred.
Yet almost the second Sang Xiaoshi hit the safety cushion, he scrambled up and threw himself beside Shen Siyang.
Shen Siyang only felt a wet sensation on his face before his face, arms, and legs were checked repeatedly by Sang Xiaoshi’s trembling hands.
“You’re okay. You’re okay.”
Sang Xiaoshi’s choked, near-shattered voice sounded intermittently beside Shen Siyang’s ear.
Adjusting to the vertigo, Shen Siyang was finally able to see his surroundings clearly.
The azure sky looked like a curved protective dome spanning across his field of vision.
Thus, all that fell within his view was Sang Xiaoshi’s deathly pale face and the tears rolling continuously from his eyes.
Tears dripped onto his hands, his body, and his face.
Scolding hot and intense.
Shen Siyang felt as though his heart had been ruthlessly seized by a hand and squeezed to bursting without mercy.
He realized he was wrong.
After struggling painfully for over half a month, he was still completely, utterly wrong.
He had been terrified that taking a step further would cause Sang Xiaoshi’s love for him to grow uncontrollably out of bounds.
In truth, however, the love Sang Xiaoshi bore for him had long transcended titles, and spanned across life and death itself.
Like a sword that draws blood whenever unsheathed, once drawn, there was no longer any possibility of returning it intact to its scabbard.
Tears spilled from the corners of his eyes.
His heart thumped wildly against his ribs.
Raising a hand, Shen Siyang gently cupped Sang Xiaoshi’s face, his thumb softly wiping away the tears rolling down his cheeks, and asked in a low voice: “Xiaoshi, if it’s destined that I’ll have to leave you one day, do you still want to be in love with me?”
Sang Xiaoshi froze, looking down at him through tear-veiled eyes.
His beautiful eyes were clouded with mist, yet it couldn’t hide the passionate, burning love deep within them.
Grabbing Shen Siyang’s hand resting against his cheek, Sang Xiaoshi strove to piece his shattered voice back together:
“I have always been in love with you and I have never once thought of stopping.”
A roaring blast echoed in Shen Siyang’s ears.
He closed his eyes tightly, and the moment he opened them again, he reached around the back of Sang Xiaoshi’s neck, pulling him down toward his face.
Tilting his chin up, he pressed a gentle kiss against Sang Xiaoshi’s lips.
“That’s my answer.”