TF01 105

Drowning was agony.

Du Zihua’s frantic thrashing made that clear enough. In the darkness, no one could see exactly how the two were grappling in the water, but the splashing gradually weakened, and the screams for help that had pierced the night fell silent. Just as Kou Jing, sick with worry, was about to wade in, Shi Yi finally dragged Du Zihua back onto the shore.

Both of them were deathly pale, their bodies chilled to the bone after struggling for so long in that freezing water.

Kou Jing took off his jacket and stepped forward to drape it over Shi Yi’s shoulders, but Shi Yi refused. He stood over Du Zihua, who lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for air like his lungs were burning.

“So? How did it feel to die?”

He grabbed a fistful of Du Zihua’s hair, yanking his head up.

“Want to try again?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Du Zihua jerked like someone had sent a current through him.

His eyes were wide with terror. His entire body trembled as he instinctively tried to retreat, but he had no strength left. All he managed was a pitiful crawl backward, scraping against the ground in a daze of near-death panic. Just moments ago, he had been certain Shi Yi was going to kill him.

The water had been so cold it stabbed into his bones. His mouth and nose had been filled with choking river water. Every time he tried to suck in air, another crushing wave had forced him back under. If it happened again, he was sure it would break him.

“I thought you were fearless,” Shi Yi said coldly. “Turns out you’re nothing but a coward.”

That made Du Zihua shake even harder.

The night wind cut through his soaked clothes like knives. He couldn’t even form a sentence. But Shi Yi’s rage showed no sign of cooling. He looked at Du Zihua’s pale, terrified face, and with a frown, kicked him back into the river.

This time, he just stood there and watched.

Kou Jing was frozen in disbelief. He finally shouted, “Shi Yi!”

In the water, Du Zihua screamed for help, voice hoarse and raw with panic.

Maybe it was that he couldn’t swim, or maybe the earlier shock had left him paralyzed. Du Zihua thrashed stiffly at the water’s surface, like he had lost all ability to save himself. Even knowing that Shi Yi clearly wanted nothing more than to drown him right there, he still flailed desperately, pleading through every strained movement.

Just as he was about to go under, Shi Yi finally stepped forward and yanked him back to shore, dragging him up onto the cold concrete.

He crouched down and stared at him.

“You said before you’d do anything for Mao Yu. Now you’re scared?”

Du Zihua trembled where he lay, unable to get a single word out.

“You think what you did helped him?” Shi Yi crouched beside him, voice low but bitter. “If you really wanted to help, you should’ve stopped him when he started gambling, when he started lying, when he started going off the rails. Even if you had to break his hands to do it, it would’ve been better than letting someone else destroy them. Everything that happened to him, half of it, he brought on himself. The other half was your doing.”

Du Zihua lay there shaking, too shaken to respond.

“You don’t get to blame anyone else. You and him, you did this to yourselves. You thought you were helping him? That was just you feeding your pathetic self-righteousness. Let me tell you something. This isn’t over. Don’t think tonight settles anything. As long as you’re both still breathing, I won’t forget. I swear I’ll make sure you regret ever being born.”

Shi Yi grabbed his hair again and forced him to look up.

“Du Zihua, let me tell you something. This isn’t over. Don’t think tonight settles anything. As long as you’re both still breathing, I won’t forget. I swear I’ll make sure you regret ever being born.”

The words came through clenched teeth, each one shaking with rage.

His hatred for Mao Yu and Du Zihua ran so deep it felt like it might tear him apart. Back in the river, there had been a moment when he truly had wanted to drown Du Zihua for real.

He stood up and gave him one final vicious kick, then staggered a little and leaned against the embankment wall. Kou Jing had been watching the whole time. Shi Yi, soaked from head to toe, walked back to the road as if no one else existed. He lit a cigarette, took a drag, and drove off without looking back.

Under the night sky, the tail lights trailed two streaks of red. Kou Jing stood frozen for a moment before finally pulling out his phone and calling Ying Ming.

The call connected quickly. “How is it?”

“He’s okay. Nothing serious happened. But you’d better find him. He and Du Zihua were both soaking in the river for a long time. I don’t think he’ll dare go home like this. If he’s left out all night, someone’s going to end up dead.”

Kou Jing had known Shi Yi for years, but he had never seen him this brutal.

Then again, if it had happened to anyone else, the reaction would have been the same. The fact that Shi Yi didn’t actually kill Du Zihua could already be considered restraint.

After giving a brief summary of what had happened, Kou Jing glanced one last time at the person still sprawled by the river, let out a cold snort, got in his car, and drove away.

---

Shi Yi drove like a madman the whole way.

His head was a mess. He kept thinking of Du Zihua’s face, then of Mao Yu, of his father, and finally, all of it turned into a blazing anger directed at himself. He had once believed he could carry the weight of the sky itself, that there was nothing in this world that could truly get to him. As far as he was concerned, there was only what he did not want to do, not what he couldn’t do.

But after twenty-some years of arrogance, he ended up with a lifetime of regret at the hands of someone like Du Zihua. It was like taking a blow to the head with a blunt club, so hard it left his vision filled with blood.

The car sped through the night, until it reached a familiar intersection. Shi Yi was barely aware of where he was driving. By the time he realized where he had arrived, Ying Ming was already standing beside the car.

The door was open, the light from inside shining directly onto Ying Ming’s face. No telling how long he had been waiting there.

Ying Ming stood at the window, a cigarette between his lips as he rapped his knuckles against the glass. “Get out.”

Shi Yi gripped the steering wheel. His emotions were in chaos, veins bulging on the backs of his hands, his eyes locked on Ying Ming with a fierce intensity. He could not understand why Ying Ming would show up now, but some part of him also knew he had been hoping all along to see this face again.

Seeing that he was not getting out, Ying Ming frowned with growing irritation, pulled open the car door, and yanked him out.

Shi Yi was soaked through.

He had driven all this way with the windows down on purpose. His entire body was frozen to the touch. Ying Ming’s expression darkened as he dragged him into the house. He did not bother with the car, just kicked the warehouse door shut behind them and began tearing at Shi Yi’s clothes.

Shi Yi did not resist. He let Ying Ming pull off his shirt and start unbuckling his belt. The wide space inside the warehouse was not particularly warm, but when Ying Ming’s fingers brushed against Shi Yi’s skin, it felt like fire. Ying Ming stripped him bare and hauled him into the bathroom. The tub had already been filled. Ying Ming shoved him into the water and threw him a towel. “You’re not coming out until you sweat.”

Shi Yi caught the towel and frowned slightly.

Just before Ying Ming could shut the door, he called out. But after saying his name, the rest of the sentence caught in his throat. Ying Ming stood there, unmoving.

It took a long moment before Shi Yi finally forced out the words. “I’m sorry.”

The hand gripping the doorframe tightened. Ying Ming’s back was tense with a barely contained fury. He let out a low growl.

“Save the fucking apologies.”

And then he slammed the bathroom door shut.

Ying Ming had told him not to come out until he was sweating, so Shi Yi really did stay in the bathroom for over an hour. When he finally came out, there was a set of clothes laid out at the door. Ying Ming was asleep on the couch. On the table sat a bowl of soup and some bread. The room felt cold, not from the temperature, but from a quiet sense of desolation.

It looked like ever since the day Shi Yi had walked out, Ying Ming had never properly cleaned up.

Things they had knocked over during fights still lay scattered on the floor, left exactly where they had fallen. The man on the couch had his eyes closed, but his brow was still furrowed. The exhaustion on his face was unmistakable.

Things had not been easy for him. And it had not been easy for Ying Ming either.

Shi Yi sat down slowly and drank the soup, ate the bread, then tidied up the room a little. He did not go out of his way to stay quiet, but he tried not to make too much noise. The warehouse felt especially empty now. Even the slightest sound echoed harshly.

Once everything looked more or less in order, he went upstairs, grabbed a blanket from the bedroom, and came back down to cover Ying Ming with it. He stood next to him in silence for a while, then let out a long breath and closed the door behind him.

From outside came the sound of an engine starting. On the couch, the man finally opened his eyes.

He stared blankly at the ceiling, listening to the car reverse, turn around, and slowly drive off. Only when it faded into the distance did he close his eyes again.

Ying Ming had not been asleep. Shi Yi knew it too.

At a time like this, neither of them wanted to face the other. There was awkwardness, and something deeper knotted up inside. And both of them knew this kind of miserable scene was one they would rather forget for the rest of their lives.

Later, Shi Yi went to find Ou Yang. Even though that guy had been furious enough to threaten shutting the whole company down, in the end he did not go through with it. Still, too many things had happened over the past few weeks. Several projects were lost one after another due to ripple effects, and some partner companies demanded compensation or withdrew investments. Ou Yang did everything he could to salvage the situation. The entire company was left in chaos, everyone scrambling.

Maybe it was all the pressure bottled up, but when Shi Yi went to see him, the two nearly came to blows. Still, they managed to talk things through in the end. Shi Yi returned to the company to hold down the fort while Ou Yang had to go on a few business trips to negotiate with partners.

“If you pull that shit again, I swear I’ll beat the crap out of you.”

He threw that line over his shoulder before leaving, still visibly fuming.

Shi Yi only raised a brow at that, offering no response.

The problems the company faced turned out to be far worse than he had expected. The fallout from Chen Cheng’s mess still had not been fully resolved, and now new complications were cropping up. It was not just pressure, it was the entire atmosphere. Things had gone from smooth sailing to one disaster after another. Shi Yi was not oblivious. He quickly realized that the root of the problem was not just bad luck or outside circumstances. There were people pulling strings.

But this time, he did not plan to rely on anyone else to fix it.

He did not return to his old apartment after leaving Ying Ming’s place. Instead, he spent his nights at home with his mother. While a lot still remained unresolved between them, they had at least reached the point where they could exchange a few words, mostly updates about work. Chen Cheng still came by almost every weekend, never with a friendly face. The two of them avoided any mention of Ying Ming or the others, and both seemed content to keep it that way. As the weather began to warm, Shi Yi had the idea of taking a family trip somewhere, but with all the issues at the company, he could never find the time. The plan kept getting postponed.

He mostly stayed in touch with Ying Ming by phone.

Shi Yi spent his days at the office and his nights at home. Whenever he found time, Ying Ming would be tied up, and vice versa. Neither of them brought up the breakup again, but they both understood that once Shi Yi had said those words, something irreversible had formed between them. Whether Ying Ming had agreed or not, that rift would always be there. It was not something that could simply be smoothed over.

So they did not force it. Unlike before, when one of them would barge in on the other just to sleep or talk nonsense, they now acted more like familiar friends. A message now and then. A call once in a while. Sometimes they crossed each other’s minds.