TF01 97

On the drive back, Shi Yi was the one behind the wheel.

Ying Ming leaned back in the seat, eyes resting on the red taillights ahead. His mind was a mess of thoughts, each one slipping away before it could settle. He waited for Shi Yi to speak, but the silence stretched on.

Shi Yi said nothing.

Not until they pulled up in front of Ying Ming’s building. Neither of them got out. The car headlights shone toward the mouth of the alley, harsh and blinding.

“Wang Mengqi isn’t actually Wang Yiqi’s biological brother.”

Ying Ming’s explanation came without warning. “His family’s from a traditional opera lineage. Everything there is passed down through strict master-disciple lines, and legacy is everything. Wang Yiqi never had much interest in any of that. He ran off and became an actor. But his family couldn’t let the tradition die, so they adopted Wang Mengqi and raised him as a foster son. Outwardly, they claimed he was Wang Yiqi’s younger brother, but the two of them aren’t blood-related.”

The last time Wang Yiqi had come to him in the middle of the night, it had been because of trouble between him and Wang Mengqi.

Ying Ming had always vaguely sensed there was something complicated between them, but he’d never looked into it. Wang Yiqi had never hidden the fact that he liked men, not since the day they met, but since Ying Ming didn’t swing that way, he had always stayed out of his friend’s love life. That stuff wasn’t meant for outsiders anyway. It was personal. Whatever someone chose to bury in their heart, that was their own burden to carry.

Shi Yi pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Ying Ming snagged it without asking, took two drags, and frowned. “That kid was completely out of it during the promo tour. I didn’t think it’d blown up this bad.”

Feelings, once mishandled, have a way of spiraling into ruin. And sometimes, there’s just no putting things back together.

It wasn’t until that cigarette was nearly gone that Shi Yi finally asked, “So what now?”

He asked, but deep down, he already knew the answer.

Ying Ming took the last couple drags, then flicked the butt out the window. “No matter what, we have to get Wang Yiqi’s photos back.”

If this story got out, it wouldn’t just be a scandal. It would be the total ruin of the Wang family. And that was no exaggeration.

They didn’t even need public exposure. Just letting the family find out about Wang Yiqi and Wang Mengqi would be enough to destroy them. There’d be no way forward for either of them. And God only knew how brutal it would get.

Especially when the whole thing had started because of him.

“Du Zihua is coming after us. There’s no way I’m dragging Wang Yiqi and the others down with us…”

Ying Ming closed his eyes. “I’ll think of something for Mao Yu’s situation. But if there’s really no time left…”

He didn’t finish the sentence, but Shi Yi already understood.

When it truly came down to it, they might really have to trade their own photos to protect Wang Yiqi and his brother.

Which meant they would have to come out.

Shi Yi smoked in silence, not showing much on his face. Ying Ming didn’t bother finishing that last sentence either. The atmosphere in the car was stifling, pressing heavily on both of them. He kept his eyes closed, waiting for Shi Yi’s response.

Ever since Chen Cheng had found out about them, Ying Ming had been mentally preparing for this day. Something like this could never be hidden forever. Either they broke up early, or they would have to face it eventually.

That was how Ying Ming saw it, and of course Shi Yi had thought it through too. After finishing his cigarette, he glanced at Ying Ming and asked, “If it really gets out, what will you do about your career?”

A public figure like him, was he really prepared to risk everything?

“My career’s not the issue.”

Ying Ming frowned. “Even if Du Zihua has the photos, he wouldn’t dare sell them to a magazine. At most he’d post them online. And when it comes to facing the media, as long as we deny it, no one can prove a thing. The entertainment industry thrives on smoke and mirrors. No one can tell what’s real and what’s not.”

Call it fake, and half the world will still believe it. Call it real, and there will always be people who don’t. That’s how the industry works. Rumors thrive best when they’re half true and half false.

After all these years, Ying Ming had enough experience to deal with it. He was never some massively famous star to begin with. At most he might be blacklisted for a year or two. Once the heat died down, things would go back to normal. Plenty of people in the industry were half-out already. You just had to play the game.

The real problem between the two of them wasn’t fame. It was their families.

Shi Yi tilted his head slightly, a complicated look in his eyes. “Maybe this was inevitable all along.”

Back then, he had still been hesitating over how to tell his family. Now, he no longer had the luxury of figuring it out. Things had already escalated to this point.

As the saying went, the King of Hell was easy to deal with, but little demons were hard to fend off. If it had been Chen Cheng coming after them, Shi Yi might have been able to handle it. But the real problem was Du Zihua. He was not after money or favors. He simply wanted to hurt them out of pure malice. That kind of grudge, full of blind spite, left them with no easy options.

“He really did manage to stumble right onto your weak spot,” Shi Yi said, a faint trace of amusement in his voice. Now that things had gotten this bad, they probably couldn’t get much worse, and maybe that was why he no longer felt quite so agitated. When he finished his cigarette, he lit another. This time, Ying Ming didn’t take it from him, just let the smoke drift across his vision, blurring the world in front of him.

Shi Yi let out a long breath. “Alright. Whatever you decide, just tell me what you need me to do.”

Ying Ming glanced over at him. “You’re really sure about this?”

“So what if I’m not sure? This is something we brought on ourselves. There’s no avoiding it now.”

If he had not gone after Mao Yu in the first place, Du Zihua might never have found his way to Ying Ming. The rest of this mess would never have followed. It was not a matter of right or wrong, but their relationship never should have been exposed this early.

What Ying Ming had told Du Zihua earlier, that everyone has to take responsibility for what they’ve done, applied to the two of them as well.

Shi Yi leaned against the car door, smoking with a sigh, his gaze split between Ying Ming and the road ahead. “We’re together. What’s there to hide? Whether you cover it up for three days or three years, it’s just a choice between short-term and long-term pain.” Besides, even if he did want to distance himself now, Du Zihua was not about to let him off the hook.

Just the memory of that boy’s bitter, poisonous glare made a cold smirk twist at Shi Yi’s lips.

Anyone reckless enough to challenge him would have to pay for it. Whether this mess blew up publicly or not, he had no intention of letting Du Zihua walk away unscathed.

Later that night, Ying Ming called Wang Yiqi.

He gave a rough summary of what had happened and made his stance crystal clear. “Shi Yi and I will take care of it. Don’t worry about the photos.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Ever since they had met, this was the first time they had spoken with so little room left between them.

When Wang Yiqi finally responded, his voice was hoarse. He had clearly been having a hard few days. “Ying Ming… no matter how much you resent it, no matter how much you reject it, home is still home. You can’t let it be destroyed. I don’t care what happens to the family name, even if it’s been guarded for generations by those old men. But I can’t be the one to stain it…”

He knew perfectly well that if Shi Yi and Ying Ming were ever outed, the pressure they would face would be just as crushing as his own.

But now, no matter what, he couldn’t bring himself to say the words—to tell Ying Ming and Shi Yi not to get involved.

Ever since those photos landed in his hands, he had barely slept. The moment his mind quieted down, he would picture all the worst-case scenarios, and his limbs would go cold.

He had never been this scared in his life. Never this full of regret.

If he could do it all over again, he would rather let Wang Mengqi leave. Parting ways didn’t mean they would never see each other again. He had chosen to hold on, but the price he had to pay was the reputation the Wang family had built over generations. It was too steep. He couldn’t afford it.

“Ying Ming…”

Wang Yiqi let out a heavy breath. “I’m sorry.”

Ying Ming didn’t respond. He simply waited until Wang Yiqi hung up.

Then he sat alone on the living room couch, smoking in silence.

Shi Yi was in the back, going through his emails. He had heard the call but didn’t say a word.

When things got to this point, it was impossible to say who was at fault.

It was like every step had been laid out by fate. Everyone had made their choices with a clear head, and yet here they were. No one could pinpoint exactly where it had all started.

There was an open bottle of beer on the coffee table. Ying Ming took a couple of swigs, finally breaking the oppressive silence.

He didn’t look back. He just asked loud enough for Shi Yi to hear, “Should you give your family a heads-up?”

His own family had grown used to seeing messy headlines. Even if they suspected something, it wouldn’t be impossible to accept. But when it came to Shi Yi’s family, things might not be so simple.

The man at the computer paused at the question. His hand on the mouse stilled, brow faintly furrowed.

“I’ll explain it when I go back.”

Until the very last moment, he had no desire to face it.

The thought itself was cowardly, but Shi Yi really was not ready to face the consequences of laying everything bare to his family. The truth was, going public would be the worst possible outcome. If there was still any way to stop Du Zihua before that happened, of course he would choose other means to settle things. Ying Ming seemed to understand what Shi Yi was thinking and didn’t press the issue. That night, neither of them slept. One stayed at his computer until dawn, the other sat there drinking beer until the sky turned light.

After that, they did try a number of approaches.

Just as Ying Ming had told Du Zihua, he might not feel any guilt about what happened to Mao Yu, but he was willing to make things right. Since Du Zihua refused to let it go for Mao Yu’s sake, then at the root of it, the problem still came down to Mao Yu.

Ying Ming had tried to meet with Mao Yu, hoping they could talk.

But Mao Yu avoided him completely. Even when Ying Ming went to his door in person, he was flat-out refused entry. Du Zihua couldn’t let it go, and Mao Yu didn’t want to either. To him, anything Ying Ming did now was pointless. He just wanted to take everyone down with him.

Shi Yi had also looked into Mao Yu’s family situation. It was just as Du Zihua said. His parents had already passed away due to illness. Now, he had almost no relatives left. Aside from Du Zihua, there was probably no one else even remotely close to him. That might explain why he had been so determined to repay Ying Ming the money back then. To Mao Yu, Ying Ming was probably someone he genuinely wanted to reconnect with.

He just hadn’t expected Ying Ming to be so resolute in cutting things off.

Du Zihua found out Ying Ming had gone looking for Mao Yu and was clearly furious. He called Ying Ming and left him with what he called a final deadline. Both he and Mao Yu had the same scorched-earth attitude, as if they were ready to go down and take everyone else with them.

Shi Yi was furious. Including what had happened with Zhao Zicong, he had never felt this close to murderous rage before, but when it came to Mao Yu and Du Zihua, he genuinely had a moment where the thought crossed his mind.

When it finally came time to exchange for the so-called photos, Shi Yi grabbed Du Zihua by the collar and yanked him up. “I’m warning you. If you’ve kept even a single copy, I won’t even need to lift a finger to make you disappear along with Mao Yu. You’d better remember this. One day I will come collect this debt.”

Then he threw him to the ground.

Du Zihua looked stunned, clearly rattled. He tried to act unfazed as he pulled out the camera and handed it to Ying Ming. His hand shook. “The card’s inside. I didn’t copy anything.”

Ying Ming took it with a deep frown, saying nothing.

The kid was scared, no doubt, but even scared, he had still gone through with it. He stared at Du Zihua’s sorry state, fists itching to land a blow, but he forced the urge down.

Goddamn it, he couldn’t believe he’d been tripped up by some little brat.

The swearing stayed in his head, but it was no softer than anything Shi Yi had said out loud.