A Broken Mirror Never Mends - Chapter 20

At 9:30 PM, a crane was temporarily dispatched from a nearby construction site. It drove straight into the parking lot of Wangyue Pavilion and began lifting the vehicle by the lakeside.

The restaurant staff couldn’t think of a solution quickly enough, so Ji Yuanlin had to make an emergency call to a friend in real estate. Only then was his Maserati rescued before it plunged into the lake.

Setting aside the future repair costs, although his beloved car hadn’t suffered total destruction, the years of effort he had spent on its maintenance were ruined. The entire car would never be the same as before.

Thinking of this, Ji Yuanlin felt his heart bleeding.

However, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he couldn’t show his loss of composure at all.

This was because the perpetrator of this “accident”—Zhou Sifu’s driver, a man surnamed Zhao—was apologizing to him in front of everyone.

The middle-aged man looked extremely embarrassed. “…I am so sorry, Mr. Ji. My foot slipped while I was braking. It was a careless mistake. Please forgive me!”

“Old Zhao,” Zhou Sifu sighed, unable to resist scolding him. “Even if it wasn’t on purpose, you must be more careful next time. It’s just a car this time, but what if it’s a person next time?”

Ji Yuanlin: “?”

What did he mean by “just a car”? The car is a big deal, okay?!

Patting his driver on the back, Zhou Sifu took a step forward and held out his hand to Ji Yuanlin. “President Ji, shall I have someone send the check to your company tomorrow?”

“…”

Ji Yuanlin’s breathing was a bit uneven.

…You’ve said everything there is to say. What else can I say??

Under everyone’s gaze, his throat moved, and he forced a strained smile. “Since President Zhou puts it that way, let’s do it that way.”

Seeing that the two distinguished guests had reconciled, the restaurant manager hurried to arrange a private room. He brewed a pot of high-quality tea so they would have a place to sit and discuss the compensation properly.

He originally wanted to add a seat for the accompanying Mr. Shi, but Mr. Shi flatly refused, saying he had something to do and had to leave first.

For some reason, Mr. Shi left very hurriedly—one could even say he fled.

The waiter closed the curtain of the private room. The two CEOs sat on opposite sides of a simple Chinese tea table, neither speaking first.

Zhou Sifu kept his eyes lowered, leaning back in his chair as he calmly watched the fish and tasted the tea. The sound of the cups touching didn’t break the silence; instead, it made the air in the room feel even more stagnant.

After a while, Ji Yuanlin finally couldn’t sit still anymore.

He picked up his teacup and set it down again, speaking with an unclear tone. “I really didn’t expect it to be such a coincidence to run into President Zhou at Wangyue Pavilion today.”

Zhou Sifu leaned against his seat, casually flipping through an ancient book on the table. Without looking up, he said, “It is indeed a coincidence.”

“Today is a workday, and the Economic Development Zone is dozens of kilometers away. How does President Zhou have the time to eat here?”

“I just finished dinner with a partner next door at ‘Su Causeway’.” Zhou Sifu raised an eyebrow. “Why? Did President Ji think I followed you here?”

Having his thoughts exposed by Zhou Sifu, the expression on Ji Yuanlin’s face became even uglier.

Strictly speaking, he and Zhou Sifu hadn’t spoken privately like this for several years.

After he got together with Shi Tian, Zhou Sifu had completely cut off contact with him. Even when they ran into each other at business events, Zhou Sifu never looked him in the eye.

Being ignored like air was even more uncomfortable than the arrogant and contemptuous gaze Zhou Sifu had back in school.

After scanning the thin booklet, Zhou Sifu finally looked up and spoke carelessly. “President Ji, although I don’t want to meddle in other people’s business, let me remind you: using violence to force a partner in broad daylight is illegal.”

Hearing Zhou Sifu’s words, a different tone finally entered Ji Yuanlin’s voice. “President Zhou saw that?”

He gave Zhou Sifu a cold smile. “This is a private family matter. It’s none of an outsider’s business.”

Zhou Sifu nodded and smiled understandingly. “Since President Ji says so, I suddenly remembered something else.”

“You two got married last month, and I didn’t make it to the scene to congratulate you. What a pity,” he said. “President Ji should have told me in advance. I have a good relationship with Davide, the CEO of Maserati. If I had known you were getting married this month, I could have reached out to him and sent a limited edition GranCabrio to President Ji as a wedding gift.”

“…”

The hand Ji Yuanlin used to hold his teacup trembled imperceptibly in mid-air.

If the words they exchanged when they first met were just fake politeness, then this sentence from Zhou Sifu was an open mockery.

Maserati’s GranCabrio had collaborated with a German automaker this year to release a new model, with only five hundred units produced worldwide. It was a priceless treasure that couldn’t be bought even with money. Although the pure white Quattroporte he owned was also a limited edition, it couldn’t even compare to the top-tier limited model Zhou Sifu mentioned.

The global limited edition he had spent so much effort and used so many connections to buy didn’t even rank in the eyes of this big boss of Danofe. If he wanted to, Zhou Sifu could probably give away a new limited GranCabrio as if it were nothing.

Thinking of this, the expression on Ji Yuanlin’s face stiffened. “There’s no need for President Zhou to spend so much. I—”

He intended to keep talking, but another thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

He was beginning to realize that every word Zhou Sifu said today and every action he took was designed to give him a heart attack.

He couldn’t keep following Zhou Sifu’s words and being led by the nose. From the time they met in high school until now, when had Zhou Sifu not dug a hole for him to jump into? When had he ever let him feel comfortable?

Recording a grudge against the man in front of him, Ji Yuanlin suddenly showed a smiling face again. “I didn’t invite President Zhou to the wedding because I had some concerns of my own.”

“After all, President Zhou and my Tiantian had some unpleasantness in the past. I was worried that President Zhou was still holding a grudge about what happened in Harbin, and attending the wedding might ruin your mood.”

“After all, if it wasn’t for that incident, Tiantian and I wouldn’t be together, right?” He paused and said, “You gave me this chance, President Zhou.”

For the first time since entering the room, Zhou Sifu finally frowned.

His gaze darkened slightly. He held up his teacup and said flatly, “I’m listening.”

Ji Yuanlin looked meaningfully at the man opposite him. “I have two questions that I still haven’t figured out.”

“First, the two of us clearly arrived at the hospital at the same time that day. Why did you only let me go up?” he asked. “Simply because my blood type matched his?”

“Second, back in Harbin, who exactly were you hiding from?”

Ji Yuanlin clearly remembered the evening he saw the missing persons notice on television.

He looked up while washing dishes and saw photos of the casualties scrolling across the news screen. He recognized that familiar face at a glance.

Below the photo was a line of small text: [Injured person A16 – Identity unconfirmed – Critically injured]

He took a taxi to the Municipal People’s Hospital overnight. The car broke down halfway, and he ran a full two kilometers through the heavy snow until he finally burst through the hospital doors.

He told the nurse at the reception desk that he was a friend of A16 and asked how he was doing.

The nurse froze for a moment, pointed to a corner of the hospital lobby, and said, “That person also said he was a friend of A16. But there are too many people tonight; only one can go up at a time. You two decide who goes.”

He turned his head and saw a tall figure standing in the most remote corner of the lobby.

The man was wearing a crumpled black hoodie, with the hood pulled down to hide his face completely. He stood in the shadows with a hunched back, looking travel-worn from head to toe, exactly like a thief preparing to sneak into someone’s house.

He walked up to the man, stared at the stubble on his chin, his sunken cheeks, and bloodshot eyes for a long time, and spoke in disbelief. “…Senior Zhou?”

The students at school always said that Shi Tian and Zhou Sifu were the two most handsome guys in the School of Management and the Institute of Automation. Walking together, they were like a piece of scenery on campus—a match made in heaven.

He had never seen Zhou Sifu like this. To be reduced to such a state was incredibly pathetic.

As if it took him a long time to recognize who he was, Zhou Sifu’s pupils suddenly constricted. He asked in a hoarse voice, “Ji Yuanlin, what is your blood type?”

Thinking Zhou Sifu would first ask why he was there, he was stunned for a moment. “I-I’m type AB. Why?”

In the next second, Zhou Sifu reached out, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him toward the reception desk.

At the desk, Zhou Sifu borrowed a pencil and a piece of paper from the nurse. He leaned over the table and began writing hurriedly.

He leaned in and saw Zhou Sifu writing down lines of messy handwriting:

[Name: Shi Tian]

[ID Number: XXXXXXXX]

[Age: 22 years, 5 months, 8 days]

[Height: 182cm / Weight: 70kg]

[Blood Type: AB]

[Food Restrictions: Mango / Dried Tofu / Lychee]

[Allergic Medications / Reactions: …]

…

In just two minutes, Zhou Sifu wrote down every detail of Shi Tian’s personal information, including his parents’ phone numbers and home address, filling an entire sheet of paper. Then he folded it and handed it to him, telling him to give it to the doctor and not to lose it.

While he was writing, he saw the part of Zhou Sifu’s wrist exposed outside his sleeve. He surprisingly found several unhealed red scratches on the wrist.

They looked a bit like scars from self-harm with a utility knife.

Before he could ask, Zhou Sifu had already shouted to the nurse in charge of receiving the relatives of the injured. He pushed him forward. “His blood type is the same as the injured person’s. Please take him up immediately. I beg you.”

Hearing the nurse say that Shi Tian needed an emergency blood transfusion, he also felt anxious. Before following the nurse into the elevator, he turned his head and asked Zhou Sifu, “Senior, will you be waiting down here then?”

Before he could finish, he saw that Zhou Sifu had already pulled up his hood and was hurriedly turning away into the crowd in the lobby.

Halfway there, Zhou Sifu paused as if he had suddenly noticed something. Then he suddenly took off, running toward the hospital’s back door.

In the following days, Shi Tian’s condition gradually stabilized, and he was moved from the ICU to a regular ward.

During the day, he asked his supervisor for leave to stay in the ward. He left before the school’s curfew. Every night before he left the ward, Zhou Sifu would appear silently outside the door like a ghost, wearing that same unwashed black hoodie.

He didn’t know how this person managed to sneak into the hospital in the middle of the night. But strangely, every time he came to the hospital in the morning and met Zhou Sifu in the elevator going down, Zhou Sifu would act as if he didn’t know him at all.

Until the evening Shi Tian woke up.

The first thing Shi Tian said after waking up was calling Zhou Sifu’s name and asking for water.

He knew Zhou Sifu was standing right outside the door. He also saw Zhou Sifu’s back suddenly stiffen against the door the moment he heard Shi Tian calling him.

But at that moment, he became selfish.

He lied to Shi Tian.

He didn’t tell Shi Tian in the hospital bed: The person you want to see is right outside the door, separated from you by only a single wall.

He thought Zhou Sifu would burst through the door the moment he lied and expose his clumsy lie, just like the arrogant campus bully he used to be. But he didn’t.

From that day on, no one ever saw Zhou Sifu again.

Hearing the two questions raised by Ji Yuanlin, the expression on Zhou Sifu’s face suddenly turned cold. “It’s none of your business.”

Swirling his teacup, Ji Yuanlin stared at his own reflection in the water and said casually, “Why don’t I tell you another secret?”

“In the past, I always wondered why unrequited love was so agonizing,” he said slowly. “But later I discovered that having a connection but no destiny is the most painful thing. Don’t you agree, President Zhou?”

Ji Yuanlin spoke to the man in front of him: “Eight years ago, on the day Tiantian left Harbin to go home, you sent a message to his phone. You said you were going abroad soon and wanted to see him one last time.”

“His phone was originally lost at the site of the avalanche. It was later found by the rescue team and handed to me.” He sighed softly. “He asked me if I found his phone, and I told him it was lost.”

Zhou Sifu frowned, and the hand holding the teacup stiffened imperceptibly.

Taking in every bit of Zhou Sifu’s reaction, Ji Yuanlin looked up, his eyes filled with a smile as he looked at Zhou Sifu. “I was the one who replied to that text.”

“It wasn’t 7:00 AM at the West Terminal, MK325,” he said. “It was 7:00 AM at the East Terminal, MU380.”

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