“He Yu…” Xie Xue sobbed spasmodically, her voice like an injured kitten. “What should I do…? I wanted to help my brother out, so I-I started a livestream to explain, but…” She whimpered. “I wanted to have a proper conversation, but no one was willing to calmly listen to me tell the whole story… They started to curse at me halfway through, or just didn’t listen at all… They even said that I was a fraud, that I wasn’t his little sister, that I’m…I’m…”
She sucked in a breath but didn’t continue. She sobbed for a while before saying helplessly, “They thought I was trying to use the murders to go viral, so they reported my video… Some people even said that my parents were the real culprits behind the scenes… He Yu, you know they’ve been gone for years. The dead should be respected. I thought we could leave the deceased out of it…but th-they…they asked me to show my parents’ cremation certificate…!”
Xie Xue wept bitterly, unable to continue speaking.
He Yu’s knuckles had gone slightly pale.
He was too used to treating Xie Xue well, so upon hearing her cries, his first instinct was to comfort her, to help her solve her problem. But just as he was about to speak, he recalled her messages to Xie Qingcheng.
That human warmth slowly retreated from his disease-ridden, decaying heart. He fell silent.
A voice inside him sighed and tried to coax him. Although Xie Xue wasn’t as good to him as he’d imagined, when all was said and done, she hadn’t known anything. At the very least, she was the person he was closest to and the one who treated him with the most tenderness. That was enough.
But another voice stabbed into his flesh. There was no need for him to be benevolent or caring anymore. In fact, he should stop being so stupid.
“Can I ask you something, Xie Xue?” He Yu finally said.
“Mm… Go…go ahead…” Xie Xue sniffled.
He Yu, seated in the luxurious private room, said to the girl who was curled up in her rundown and shabby little house, “When the hackers played those videos on all the mobile devices around Huzhou University that day, you saw them too.”
“I did…”
“Your brother is a doctor in a field related to psychiatry. It’s understandable that he would be attacked if he says things like that. The internet fosters a more emotionally volatile environment in the first place; when nobody has to put a face to the words they’re saying or reading, they act much more aggressively. I don’t think it’s at all strange that he’s getting cursed at.”
“But it’s just a few words he said… All these years, he’s always been diligent and responsible when it comes to his work. He’s never done things carelessly, you know this…”
“I know,” He Yu interrupted her. He’d almost never interrupted Xie Xue before. “But I also know other things about your brother, like how he told you to stay away from me.”
Xie Xue seemed to be at a loss for how to respond, as if she didn’t know the reason for the turnaround in his attitude.
He Yu, however, was so calm it was disturbing.
“Xie Xue, there’s only one thing I want to ask you right now. Hearing your brother warn you about me all these years—have you ever suspected that I might be mentally ill?”
“I—” Xie Xue froze at the unexpected question.
Had she?
Had she ever?
In the countless days that had passed, had she ever felt just a sliver of hesitation toward He Yu because of Xie Qingcheng’s words? Had she ever suspected, deep in her heart, that the reason why Xie Qingcheng had lived in the He family’s residence for so long and admonished her constantly was because He Yu was also a patient? Did she really have no suspicions at all?
“I…” Xie Xue wasn’t any good at lying. She paused, hesitating for a long while as she held her phone dazedly. “But…but how would you… Even if you were, then… No, no. You’re so outstanding, you definitely wouldn’t…”
He Yu’s eyelashes quivered, casting wispy shadows over his face. He smiled softly and said, “You’re right, I’m not.”
One of the hostesses lit a cigarette and tried to pass it to He Yu. He took it, glanced at it, and then returned it to her with a smile and a polite shake of his head. He seemed calm on the surface, but there was a deranged darkness in his eyes.
“Then, He Yu, can you—”
“No,” He Yu said gently. “Xie Xue, I’m sorry. I can’t.”
He was still smiling as he spoke, but the dull pain in his heart was boring through his chest with a force powerful enough to splinter the sky. His cold fingertips played with the woman’s hair.
“I have some business to take care of tonight, so I can’t step away. Why don’t you find someone else to keep you company?” He Yu’s lips parted. “We weren’t all that close to begin with, isn’t that so?”
The girl at the other end of the line was dumbfounded. She’d never seen this side of He Yu before. She’d never heard him speak in a voice so gentle and refined yet devoid of the slightest hint of emotion.
Or perhaps the emotions entwined within were simply too deep, too profound. So profound that they’d crushed that youth—the He Yu that she knew, the He Yu that he himself knew—until he was mangled beyond recognition.
He Yu didn’t wait for Xie Xue to reply. He hung up, smiling.
He’d been completely right. Xie Qingcheng’s presence had rendered all his past efforts completely futile; he and Xie Xue could never have gotten together.
No. Perhaps, from Xie Qingcheng’s perspective, it wasn’t just Xie Xue that He Yu shouldn’t be having an intimate relationship with, but anyone at all.
Seeing that he’d hung up, the girl clinging to his side, who was the prettiest in the room, pouted. “Young Master He, what do you want to play next?” Her fingertips stroked his thigh indecently.
He Yu put down his phone and stared disdainfully at her. In a mild tone, he said, “Take your hands off me. I don’t like it when people touch me without permission. Sit properly, and don’t pull any of your tricks. Otherwise, I’ll need to ask you to leave.”
His erratic behavior gave the girl a fright. The room fell silent. Everyone else sat up straighter, unsure of what to do.
He Yu ignored them as he drank on his own. He even uncorked that bottle of Plum Fragrance 59.
“Young Master He,” the leader of the group tried to remind him, “this liquor…”
“I know what this is.”
He was very aware. He’d only uncorked the bottle—if or when he would drink it depended on how he ended up feeling.
The atmosphere had become strained, and the girls didn’t dare to make a sound. They stood there frozen like that until their feet started aching in their eight-inch heels.
Then, a clamor came from outside the room.
“Sir, you can’t go in there…”
“Sir—sir—”
All of a sudden, the door to the private room was rudely thrown open.
He Yu looked askance at the intruder.
The man who appeared before He Yu’s icy-cold eyes, wearing a white button-down shirt and slim-fit dress pants, was none other than Xie Qingcheng. He hadn’t picked up any of Xie Qingcheng’s calls, so Xie Qingcheng had come barging in himself.
The manager on duty by the door turned pale with fright. “Y-you useless waste of space! How could you let someone up here?”
The complexion of the bouncer who was trailing Xie Qingcheng had likewise turned waxy, but before he could say anything, He Yu spoke up lazily from his spot on the sofa. “Forget it.” His voice carried the hint of a sneer, cold enough to cut through bone. “He’s quite formidable. It’s to be expected that you couldn’t stop him. Since he’s already here, you might as well just let him in.”
He Yu was speaking to the two employees, but his eyes remained unblinkingly fixed on Xie Qingcheng.
Xie Qingcheng had rushed here, so he was panting through parted lips, his breathing a bit uneven. Several strands had escaped from his usually neat hair and spilled over his keenly penetrating eyes, which sparked with flames like dots of crimson ink fallen into water.
He Yu stared into those eyes for a while before speaking with surprising composure. “Doctor Xie, please come in.”
“Ah…this…” The bouncer who had been trying to stop Xie Qingcheng still hadn’t caught up with this sudden change in circumstances.
The manager, however, had a keen eye and was quick to react. How could he not recognize Xie Qingcheng? He’d been all over the internet for the past few days—he had suffered a shock at Huzhou University alongside He Yu. There was definitely some kind of unusual dispute between these two VIPs, and outsiders had better stay as far away as possible to avoid getting swept up in the impending hurricane.
He shot the patrolling guard a meaningful look, and the two of them quickly retreated from the scene, closing the door that Xie Qingcheng had thrown open as they left.
Inside the room, the two men looked at each other, neither of them speaking a word. But the instant their eyes met, both of them knew what was going through the other’s mind.
It had only been a handful of days since their last meeting, but at this moment, their perspectives had already been turned on their heads—their positions had been reversed, and everything had changed.