DNSTU 12. Chu Lian

Why give three days to decide?

Because three days later, on June 25th, the college entrance exam results came out.

When Xing Zhou told Xiang Ye, “You can check your scores now,” he was completely stunned. At that moment, he had already returned to the unfinished building to recover, sitting in a rocking chair with a cup of warm milk in his hands.

“What did you say?” That was his instinctive reaction.

“Gaokao results,” Xing Zhou repeated.

Only then did Xiang Ye remember that he was a college entrance exam student. When the fake parents had appeared, it had only been a week since he finished the test. He should have been like every other student, anxiously awaiting his results and hoping for a bright future.

But he had forgotten.

“It doesn’t matter,” Xiang Ye leaned back again, holding the warm milk in both hands, his expression calm. “I probably won’t be going back to school anyway.”

Xing Zhou frowned, his face full of disapproval.

It was the first time Xiang Ye had seen him show emotion so openly. He was surprised. Then he glanced over at Chen Junyang, who was playing on his phone in the corner and kept sneaking glances their way.

“If you’re that curious, why don’t you check it yourselves?” Xiang Ye found it amusing.

“We already did,” Chen Junyang answered in a small voice.

“Hm?” Xiang Ye looked over again.

But Chen Junyang turned away and said nothing. Xing Zhou explained on his behalf, “Jueming checked. You’re the top scorer in the province.”

Xiang Ye said, “Oh.”

Chen Junyang turned his head. “Oh???”

What do you mean oh? You’re the top scorer!

Xiang Ye replied, “I’m naturally gifted.”

Chen Junyang said, “… Heh.”

Xiang Ye was not surprised by the result. Before the fake parents appeared, his goal had been to earn a fortune and fix up the unfinished building. So when it came to studying, he rarely slacked off. His grades had always been at the top. Even while working part-time, he still ranked among the best.

From primary school through high school, no one dared mess with him. To offend him was to offend the teachers, and not even the parents would side with them.

Right now, Chen Junyang was getting a taste of the same dread Jiangzhou students had long endured under this academic tyrant. As a failing student himself, he had always been at odds with top scorers. In his head, he was already roasting Xiang Ye in an eight-hundred-character rant, faster than writing an essay.

Xing Zhou asked, “You really don’t want to keep studying?”

Xiang Ye said, “If I want to, I can.”

Chen Junyang: “……”

Shut up already.

At that moment, Jueming sent his congratulations through the app’s customer service chat. The sprite spammed dozens of celebratory emojis and, slipping in some personal bias, earnestly recommended that Xiang Ye apply to Jingzhou University.

Customer Service Sprite: Jingzhou is great! Our Enforcement headquarters is located in Jingzhou. A bunch of our colleagues are locals. If you come, we’d all welcome you with open arms. Jingzhou University ranks at the top nationwide. The campus is open-minded and free-spirited. Even if you don’t enroll now, we can help hold your place. You could start in a few years. So convenient, right? Also, our boss used to be a teaching assistant at Jingzhou University. If he hadn’t switched from academia to fieldwork, he might’ve ended up as your professor. What a perfect coincidence! If you applied to Jingzhou University, he might bring you into the Enforcement right away…

Jingzhou University. Teaching assistant?

Xiang Ye looked at Xing Zhou with a puzzled expression, scanning him up and down. He had assumed the man was military. At the very least a graduate from a police academy. Judging from his physical prowess alone, it was hard to imagine that he had once been a teacher.

Xing Zhou noticed his confusion and more or less guessed what Jueming had told him, so he said, “The Enforcement has its own rules. Information about Lu Ye must never be disclosed to outsiders. That is iron law. Everyone who joins the Enforcement must already be someone in the know.”

In other words, the Enforcement only selected suitable candidates from among those who already knew about Lu Ye. Then what was Xing Zhou’s connection to Lu Ye? How had he first learned about its existence?

Xing Zhou had once said that everyone in the Enforcement was just like Xiang Ye. What kind of stories were hidden behind each of them?

After thinking for a moment, Xiang Ye asked, “That signal from Chu Lian you tracked that day. Was it definitely in Jingzhou?”

Xing Zhou replied, “Yes.”

Back in Guan Shui Tan, Xiang Ye had received a call from Chu Lian. Jueming had traced the signal and found that it originated in Jingzhou. But by the time their people arrived, Chu Lian was already gone.

Still, that might have been a signal of its own.

“I’m going to Jingzhou,” Xiang Ye made his decision quickly. Then he turned to Xing Zhou and asked, “What about your answer?”

Xing Zhou looked straight into his eyes. If there was anything about Xiang Ye that could move him, it was that maturity and determination far beyond his years. This time, he did not hesitate. He reached out his hand and said, “Welcome to the Enforcement.”

Chen Junyang looked up and saw the two of them shaking hands. The brilliance of the top scorer was practically blinding. It made him feel a little unwell. He had no idea what this handshake meant now or what kind of storm it would stir up in the future.

But the next storm was already on its way.

Xiang Ye said, “Since I’m the top scorer in the province, the TV station will probably be contacting me for an interview soon. Will the Enforcement mind if I appear on camera?”

Xing Zhou answered, “That’s your choice, but being in the public eye too much could interfere with Enforcement operations.”

Xiang Ye said, “Just this once.”

Xing Zhou asked, “What do you want to do?”

Xiang Ye smiled, his fingertip tracing lazy circles along the rim of the glass. “Didn’t Chu Lian say I’m too wild to be tamed? But in this world of lies and truths, whether they’re helping me or harming me, everyone has decided things on my behalf. I’ve been a puppet, a lamb led by a leash. Even the truths I discover are just the ones they want me to know. Chu Lian told me not to step into the forest, but maybe that’s exactly where he wanted me to go. And if I join the Enforcement, how do you know that’s not also what someone else wants?”

Xing Zhou thought of the anonymous message that had drawn him to Jiangzhou and could not deny Xiang Ye’s suspicion. Xiang Ye went on, “So I need to break the pattern. If I’m going to be wild, I need to be wild with purpose, and unpredictable.”

The next day, Jiangzhou news aired a story: the newly crowned provincial top scorer appeared on-screen in a rocking chair.

The news that the top scorer came from Nanshan District had already spread through Jiangzhou. Since Xiang Ye usually kept to himself and had changed his phone and number, none of his classmates could reach him. The moment he appeared on TV, the message exploded through the class group chat with hundreds of new notifications.

Xiang Ye had always been a mystery.

As a fixture on the school’s honor wall and confessions board, he naturally attracted attention. But he never made friends. He lived in an unfinished building, which added to his mystique.

The TV station, of course, did not miss the chance to highlight that detail. The camera swept through the overgrown residential compound, climbed the unguarded stairs, and pushed open the only intact door. The boy sitting in the rocking chair by the window turned his head. Backlit by the afternoon sun, his pale and delicate face emerged from the shadows. That single shot was as cinematic as anything on the big screen.

As the narrator’s voice came in, Xiang Ye’s story began to unfold slowly before the lens.

In past years, every top scorer in the college entrance exam had their own story, some went traveling before results even came out, others were busy working on construction sites. As for Xiang Ye, he sat in a rocking chair with a cast on his leg, a blanket draped over him, red dates soaked in goji berries, and visible wounds still healing on his exposed arms.

When the reporter asked what had happened, he answered, “I fell.”

The viewers all had the same immediate reaction: what a shame, how pitiful, and how handsome. When a guy was that good-looking, anything he did seemed justified. And if he looked a little more tragic, then he was flawless.

And this one was a straight-up academic god.

With that mindset, the audience watched the entire interview. Just as they thought it was coming to a close, Xiang Ye suddenly asked, “May I say one more thing?”

The reporter agreed right away.

So Xiang Ye faced the camera with a soft smile and said, “About my fall, I need to thank a kind person who helped me. I really wanted to thank him in person, but he left after telling me his name. So if anyone watching happens to know him, please let him know. I look forward to seeing him again.”

A good deed, a heartwarming story!

The reporter’s eyes lit up and quickly asked, “May I ask, what’s the name of that kind person?”

Xiang Ye replied, “Chu Lian. His name is Chu… Lian.”

Backlit at the window, Xiang Ye stared straight into the camera and enunciated Chu Lian’s name clearly and deliberately. His expression was so sincere that no one could doubt his gratitude.

The audience was moved by the story and showered him with praise. Only his classmates in the group chat were furiously roasting him.

Was that really Xiang Ye? Since when did he act so friendly? It was downright creepy. The last time he had smiled like that was when some arrogant student had followed him back to the unfinished building, hoping to take pictures and post them to the school forum to get attention, maybe even sell them to girls from other schools.

That guy had stepped right into a trap Xiang Ye had set in the bushes and ended up hanging from a tree, begging to be let down.

Was he Wild Bro? No. That was your Wild Dad.

Rumors started spreading like wildfire again through Nanshan No. 1 High School. The media followed close behind, eager to dig out more stories. But by then, Xiang Ye was already on his way to Jingzhou.

The vehicle was the same off-road SUV. Xing Zhou was driving, Chen Junyang sat in the back playing on his phone, and Xiang Ye sat in the front passenger seat, quietly staring at a small white daisy in his hand, lost in thought.

After a long while, he rolled down the window, loosened his fingers, and let the wind carry the flower away.

He had picked it downstairs from the unfinished building, a wild roadside bloom. When the old man had been sick, that same kind of flower had mysteriously appeared on the windowsill.

In a narrow-necked glass bottle, pure white daisies had once bloomed.

The flower drifted away, but the window stayed open. His long fingers reached forward to turn on the car’s stereo. A cool, distant voice began to fill the air, like wind brushing past his hair as he gazed out toward the clouds on the horizon.

At that same moment, in the Jingzhou City Library, Chu Lian closed his book and turned toward the window.

Sunlight was pouring in. A tall camphor tree outside blocked part of the light, though a few stubborn rays still made it through the leaves and fell directly into his eyes. He raised a hand to shield them, yet seemed unwilling to look away from the light.

On the table beside him, his phone was still playing Xiang Ye’s interview on loop. Over and over again. When he heard “I look forward to seeing you again” once more, Chu Lian finally turned back to glance at the screen.

Xiang Ye was looking at him through the camera. And he was looking at Xiang Ye through the screen.

After a long pause, Chu Lian said softly, “I’ll wait for you.”