SA 12.1

If it weren’t for the circumstances, Ye Jingsheng would never have believed that the man standing before him was none other than Chen Chen, the head of Hongyun.

The weather was scorching, yet Chen Chen wore a long-sleeved linen shirt without a single drop of sweat on him. He seemed a few years older than Fang Yang, but his eyes held an untainted clarity and calmness.

Standing before Ye Jingsheng and Fang Yang, who looked every bit like wild animals, Chen Chen seemed untouched by the chaos, enigmatic and composed.

“You disappeared for four days without word. I had no choice but to come find you myself,” Chen Chen said, nodding slightly at Fang Yang. Ye Jingsheng had assumed that Chen Chen and Fang Yang shared a deep bond, but the exchange between them was nothing more than this bland and formal greeting.

The beastly demeanor Fang Yang had displayed around Ye Jingsheng vanished instantly. In its place was the restrained and composed Yang ge, Hongyun’s second-in-command and Chen Chen’s most trusted lieutenant.

Ye Jingsheng followed them into the helicopter. As he stepped inside, Liao Qiu, who had been trailing behind, leaned in close and spoke in a low voice, “Ye Jingsheng, stay away from Yang ge when we’re back in Hong Kong.”

Among the group, Liao Qiu was likely the only one who had any sense of the tension between Ye Jingsheng and Fang Yang. Knowing that Liao Qiu had disliked him from the beginning, Ye Jingsheng deliberately cast an overly relaxed glance in their direction and said, “What does it matter to you whether I stay close to him or not? If you can pay for 10% of Hongyun’s shares, maybe I’ll consider listening to you.”

“You—” Liao Qiu fumed, unable to come up with a rebuttal. It wasn’t until Ye Jingsheng sat down and lazily stretched out his arms that Liao Qiu snapped, “Staying away from him is for your own good. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Ye Jingsheng ignored the cryptic warning and leaned back in his seat. Before long, he was sound asleep. In his dreams, he vaguely heard a deep voice say, “Back in Hong Kong, I was wondering why this matter was taking so long… now I understand—it’s because of… him?”

——

“You’re a damn corpse, aren’t you? You just let him come in and mess up the place? If this gets out, how am I, Hua Xiao Jie, supposed to keep my reputation, huh?” Xiao Jie stomped out of the shop, shouting angrily, but froze the moment he stepped outside. His eyes lit up as he trembled and pointed, “You—you—you—”

Leaning lazily against the lamp post by the bar door, Ye Jingsheng smirked and blew a playful kiss. “Boss Hua, how’s business these days?”

Xiao Jie burst into a mix of laughter and tears as he rushed forward, biting and kicking as he shouted, “Are you dead or what?! You just disappeared without a word and ran off to a place like that! If you’re tired of living, tell me first. I’d rather blow you up myself than have you die in some godforsaken wilderness!”

“Yes, yes, yes, I’m dead. But didn’t I come back?”

“And last time, you knocked me out and left on your own—”

“Xiao Jie,” Ye Jingsheng interrupted him, stepping closer and murmuring, “You look like you’ve put on some weight.”

Xiao Jie froze, quickly glancing down at himself. “Fat? No way, I check my weight every day—” He paused mid-sentence, realizing Ye Jingsheng was messing with him. His face flushed with anger as he raised his leg to kick but stopped halfway, letting out an exasperated huff. “You’ve always had guts. Who am I to tell you what to do?”

“Alright, alright,” Ye Jingsheng threw an arm around his shoulder, ruffling his hair affectionately. “I came to see you first thing when I got back to Hong Kong. Isn’t that enough?”

The group following them exchanged knowing glances and tactfully averted their eyes. Xiao Jie lowered his voice. “So, are you really going to keep working with Hongyun to completely take down Old Zhong?”

Ye Jingsheng smirked. “What makes you think that?”

“The moment you disappeared, some guys from Hongyun shoved me into a car, didn’t tell me a damn thing, and locked me in a basement on Temple Street for half a month. Later, I found out you went to Central America. You’re a goddamn puppet, aren’t you? They ask you to do something, and you just fucking do it?”

Hearing Xiao Jie’s signature phrase made Ye Jingsheng’s head ache. He quickly cut in, “So how’d you get out?” He doubted Hongyun would spare him out of fear, even if he was a figure in Mong Kok.

“The boss of Hongyun let me go. He said that if you were really willing to help them, it didn’t matter if I was a hostage or not.” Xiao Jie looked at him. “I’m talking about Chen Chen.”

Ye Jingsheng raised an eyebrow, pondering for a moment but unable to make sense of it. Trust him? Impossible. Chen Chen wasn’t some naive rookie to trust so easily. Or maybe… he didn’t want him helping Fang Yang in the first place?

That evening, they went to the hospital together.

“What did you say? The surgery is postponed?” Ye Jingsheng slammed the table, his brow furrowed in anger.

“The top neurosurgery expert from Germany personally examined him,” Wu Yixue explained. “The nerves have been dead for too long. A hasty operation might put his life at risk, so after some discussion—”

“You want him to stay like a fucking vegetable for the rest of his life?!” Ye Jingsheng roared.

Wu Yixue looked uncomfortable. “That’s still better than the alternative—” He stopped himself, but Ye Jingsheng understood the implication. Furious, he grabbed him by the collar. “What the fuck did you say to me before?! You said Xiao Ling had an 80% chance of waking up!”

“Calm down, Ah Sheng,” Xiao Jie interjected, pulling him back into his seat. Ye Jingsheng’s sharp eyes caught a glimpse of Wu Yixue’s name tag. So, he had been promoted from department head to deputy director in just a month. Too fast.

He shoved Xiao Jie off and snapped, “Listen to me. I don’t care how much it costs. I want him to wake up. If he stays half-dead like this, I’ll blow this fucking hospital to pieces!”

Wu Yixue wiped his sweat nervously. “Well, there is a specialist team in Germany that focuses on these types of surgeries—”

“Bring them here! I’ll pay whatever it costs!”

“But, Jingsheng, you need to prepare for the worst—”

“There is no fucking ‘worst’!”

“You have to make a choice. Either let him stay as he is, alive but comatose and dependent for life, or take the risk of him dying during the surgery.”

Ye Jingsheng turned to glance into the hospital room at the frail figure lying on the bed. The sight hit him like a bolt of lightning, and he instinctively turned away. Even now, he struggled to face his younger brother.

Ye Ling had always loved sitting on his lap, wiping ointment on his bruises while blinking up at him. “Ge, don’t keep getting into fights.”

“Tch, I do this for you. Now, who dares to bully you on my turf?” But Ye Ling would blink at him and say, “I don’t like it.”

“Idiot. What do you know? Go to sleep!”

But Ye Ling knew everything. Compared to Ye Jingsheng’s fiery and explosive nature, Ye Ling was too restrained, too taciturn. How could Ye Jingsheng not understand him? That’s why he went to such lengths to secure Ye Ling’s adoption by Wang Yongjia. He had thought it would free his brother from the depths of despair, setting him on an entirely different, elite path in life. Yet, it had led to this. If he hated Pei Jun, perhaps he should hate himself even more. If he hadn’t let Ye Ling go back then, he wouldn’t be lying here now, half-dead, trapped in agony.

“Ge, don’t keep getting into fights…”

Ye Jingsheng shut his eyes. “Surgery.” He wanted his brother to wake up, to see him smile again, to hear him say just once more…

“Ge, don’t keep getting into fights…”

Wu Yixue sighed heavily. “Alright… I’ll make the arrangements.”