A Broken Mirror Never Mends - Chapter 24.2

The hearing, which had taken most of the day, ended amidst the verbal battle between the two sides. After it concluded, Ji Yuanlin ’s lawyer didn’t stay long. He hurriedly left the scene while making a call to his client.

Shi Tian walked his lawyer to the main entrance and had Assistant Chen drive him back to the firm.

Before closing the car door, Shi Tian thanked his lawyer sincerely, “Thank you for your hard work during this time. I’ll take you out for a good meal when I have time later.”

“It’s fine, it’s what I should do. Let’s wait for the verdict; we might still have to continue the appeal.” The lawyer patted his shoulder and couldn’t help but sigh, “Mr. Shi, you should really thank that witness who testified this afternoon. Her speech was sharp and hit the mark; it was clearly guided by a professional.”

Waving the lawyer off, Shi Tian had just turned around when a camera was shoved right into his face.

A reporter holding a microphone rushed up to him. “Mr. Shi, I am a reporter from the City Economic Daily. The hearing for the Fengyu debt dispute has ended. Is it convenient for you to answer a few questions?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t accept interviews.”

Shi Tian declined. Just as he was about to avoid the lens and walk back, he realized that several local media outlets were staked out at the court entrance, all waiting for him to lose so they could film him leaving in disgrace.

As a closeted social phobe, his biggest worry had come true.

Turning around to head back to the parking lot, Shi Tian was about to find a place to hide when he heard a milky call from a corner: “Uncle Shi!”

Looking back for the source of the voice, he found a black Raffaelina parked in the northeast corner of the parking lot. The rear window was open, and a small figure popped its head out, waving a chubby arm at him. “Uncle Shi, come here—”

Without thinking twice, before the cluster of flashes at the gate could light up, Shi Tian backed up a few steps, covered his face with his sleeve, and turned to walk toward the business car.

Shi Tian was about to knock, but before he could reach out, the back door opened from the inside. His body leaned forward slightly, and he almost lost his balance and fell into the cabin.

Fortunately, a hand reached out from the passenger seat and caught him just in time.

Besides Pangpang Qiu, who was sitting in a child seat pointing at him and giggling, there were two other people in the car.

One was a middle-aged driver in the driver’s seat, and the other was a certain Mr. Zhou sitting in the passenger seat, holding onto half of his arm.

Seeing that half of his leg was still dangling outside the car door, Zhou Sifu’s voice was slightly cold, but a short flicker of amusement brewed on his face behind his sunglasses. “Pangpang, give your Daddy a hand.”

Pangpang Qiu stretched out his two little chubby hands and waved them in the air. “Uncle Shi, hold on to me tight!”

He didn’t dare call Shi Tian “Daddy” anymore; he was afraid of Uncle Zhou knocking him on the head again.

Feeling the man’s cool palm lightly holding his wrist, with rough calluses brushing over the back of his hand, Shi Tian’s entire upper body froze.

After hesitating for a few seconds, he was about to back out when he heard the person in the passenger seat speak indifferently, “Where else do you plan on going?”

Taking off his sunglasses, Zhou Sifu said, “Get in.”

After sitting in Zhou Sifu’s car for a while, the small tabloids staked out at the court entrance finally began to disperse. After chatting randomly with Pangpang Qiu, Shi Tian pieced together the general sequence of events.

As it turned out, Pangpang Qiu and Zhou Sifu’s young nephew—Zheng Ying’s son, Yang-Yang—were classmates and good friends. Once, when Zheng Ying was proctoring an exam and couldn’t attend a parent-teacher meeting, Zhou Sifu went in her place and met Qiu Jing, who was also a parent.

Pangpang Qiu puffed out his chest proudly. “Uncle Zhou often asks Yang-Yang to bring me candy—the very expensive kind from abroad—to get me to ask my mom about Uncle Shi’s company!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he received a sharp look from Uncle Zhou and immediately made a face at the rearview mirror.

“So… Qiu Jing came to be the witness today, and you’re helping her babysit?” Shi Tian asked the man in the passenger seat, his face full of suspicion.

He didn’t believe Zhou Sifu would be so leisurely as to ignore such a large company just to watch someone else’s kid at the court.

Zhou Sifu opened his mouth, but for once, he was silent.

After a long while, Shi Tian heard him say in a tight voice, “Met them on the way. It was on the way.”

Pangpang Qiu nodded repeatedly. “Uncle Zhou came to pick up me and my mom this morning! He even brought me chocolate from America!”

As he spoke, he took out his practice book from his small backpack and pointed at the arithmetic problems inside for Shi Tian to see. “Uncle Zhou even helped me with my homework at noon. He praised me for being so smart.”

“…”

Zhou Sifu signaled Old Zhao with his eyes to get Pangpang Qiu out of the car quickly.

Shi Tian suddenly understood. “So, you guys arrived at the court long ago. Why only show up in the afternoon?”

Pangpang Qiu: “Uncle Zhou said it’s because you didn’t want to see—mph—”

Having another lollipop stuffed into his mouth by Old Zhao, Pangpang Qiu smacked his lips with lingering satisfaction and finally quieted down.

Soon, Qiu Jing came out of the court after submitting all the evidence. Seeing his mother return, Pangpang Qiu, carrying his backpack full of foreign candy, turned back to say goodbye in a milky voice: “Goodbye Uncle Zhou, goodbye Daddy, goodbye Uncle Zhao!”

Shi Tian opened the car door, planning to get out and thank Qiu Jing, but he found that Qiu Jing was just standing far away at the entrance waiting for her son, seemingly with no intention of coming over to chat.

Seeing Shi Tian’s figure through the window, she smiled and waved at him as a greeting.

Zhou Sifu’s voice rang out in the cabin: “She likes you very much.”

Shi Tian asked back, “What kind of ‘like’ do you mean, President Zhou?”

Zhou Sifu paused. “Literally.”

“…”

Slowly looking away from the window, Shi Tian asked Zhou Sifu in the front seat, “Why are you helping me?”

With half his sleeve rolled up to his elbow, Zhou Sifu rested his arm on the window, his expression lazy. “Does helping others necessarily require a reason?”

“Based on my understanding of you, you’ve never been the type to help others for no reason.” Shi Tian sat up straight and asked seriously toward the pair of sharp eyes in the rearview mirror, “Your sudden intervention… is it because there’s something you want inside Fengyu?”

A chuckle escaped Zhou Sifu’s chest. “What if I said I simply find Ji Yuanlin an eyesore?”

Shi Tian said frankly, “I don’t believe you.”

“Believe what you want,” Zhou Sifu put his sunglasses back on and spoke indifferently with half-closed eyes. “Where is President Shi going? I’ll have the driver take you.”

“I’m temporarily staying at the Marriott.”

“Old Zhao, take President Shi back—”

“No need to trouble you, I’ll just walk back.” Grabbing the door handle, Shi Tian said to the two in the car, “It’s not far from the Marriott, just two kilometers. I don’t really want to ride in a car today. Walking in the breeze will be good.”

This was the truth. From yesterday until now, his nerves had been extremely tight. Now that they had finally relaxed a bit, he realized he was indeed in a bit of a mess. He looked glamorous on the surface, but he was actually alone and homeless, like a stray dog that couldn’t find its way back.

He knew Zhou Sifu had seen through his bravado and realized he didn’t really want to keep up the so-called etiquette and poise. Right now, he just needed to shed all his disguises and stay alone quietly for a while.

Sure enough, Zhou Sifu soon nodded in understanding. “Understood.”

“Old Zhao, drive to Environmental Boulevard and let President Shi out.”

Half an hour later.

The evening breeze, carrying a wave of heat, blew against him, messing up Shi Tian’s carefully styled hair.

He was squatting at the entrance of a crowded primary school, staring blankly at Zhou Sifu, who was also sitting on a flower bed. “…”

Shi Tian asked him, “…Are you very free?”

Zhou Sifu looked at his watch and answered the question solemnly: “Two meetings tomorrow at 8:00 AM. Flying to Singapore at 1:00 PM for a parts supplier bidding event. Returning to Los Angeles at 8:00 PM.”

“…”

Shi Tian felt like he was having a heart attack.

Since your schedule is so full, what are you doing still hanging around here??

He never expected that as soon as he got out of the car, Zhou Sifu would follow right behind him, claiming it was too stuffy in the car and he wanted some fresh air.

They were surrounded by a busy snack street; the levels of car exhaust and barbecue smoke in the air were severely over the limit. What kind of fresh air was he talking about?

After squatting silently by the road for a while, Shi Tian’s stomach suddenly began to growl.

With a slightly embarrassed expression, he went quiet for a moment. Just as he was about to stand up from the bus stop sign, he heard Zhou Sifu beside him ask, “What do you want to eat? I’ll go buy it for you.”

Shi Tian coughed and instinctively turned his face away. “Anything.”

Zhou Sifu got up and walked across the zebra crossing toward the snack street, but he soon doubled back.

“Do you have twenty or ten bucks?” Stopping in front of him, Zhou Sifu’s tone was also a bit unnatural. ” I only have a hundred, they can’t make change.”

“…”

In the end, it was Shi Tian who went and bought two bags of skewers at fifty cents each and two bottles of water for a dollar, giving half to Zhou Sifu.

There was a thin layer of dust on the flower bed. Zhou Sifu moved to the right and pointed at his high-end Berluti coat laid out on the flower bed, signaling him to sit.

The two of them sat side by side, eating their skewers in silence.

Shi Tian felt they were quite hilarious—two thirty-year-old men doing nothing on a big night but sitting at a school entrance eating skewers on the street.

Lowering his head to finish his makeshift dinner, Shi Tian gradually realized that sitting beside Zhou Sifu, he didn’t seem to need to say anything, nor did he feel any discomfort.

Time moved forward slowly until the sky darkened. A car turning at the intersection suddenly turned on its headlights. The area became as bright as day, making Shi Tian instinctively frown.

Before he could close his eyes, Zhou Sifu beside him suddenly raised his right hand, palm outward, blocking the piercing light for him.

The light filtered through the gaps in his fingers and hit the side of Zhou Sifu’s face. Although it was only a fleeting moment, it still divided his face into bright and dark sides.

Shi Tian was dazed for a moment.

He saw the faint trace left on Zhou Sifu’s ring finger after his tattoo was removed.

It was the class party during the summer break after graduating from high school. The dim, noisy KTV was filled with a choking smell of smoke and alcohol mixed together.

Tianjie Cai and the class monitor were on stage singing love songs passionately, while he and Zhou Sifu were kissing in a corner.

Zhou Sifu kissed him for a long time, pulling his collar and going deeper. The long, continuous collision of teeth and lips made them both a bit breathless. Seeing the vice monitor recording in the booth with a camcorder, his face turned red with shame, and he tried to push Zhou Sifu away.

As the camera lens drew closer, Zhou Sifu had no intention of stopping. While turning his head to deepen the kiss, he raised his palm toward the lens, blocking the prying eyes of others.

Later, that photo was printed out with others and pasted on the class graduation wall. The photo didn’t capture anything except for the small line of words tattooed on Zhou Sifu’s ring finger, which looked particularly clear under the flash.

Ten days—his name.

For some reason, even after so many years, he still vividly remembered the song Tianjie Cai was singing hysterically in the KTV that day.

My biggest regret / Is that your regret is related to me

As soon as I think of you / You are so close

But in the end, you can’t / Accompany me to the distant place we can’t return to—

The handsome and rebellious side profile of the youth in his memory gradually merged with the features of the man beside him. By the time Shi Tian regained his senses, Zhou Sifu had already lowered his hand, and the car had long driven away. Without the blinding light, the surroundings darkened once again.

Intending to lighten the mood, Shi Tian gripped his water bottle and couldn’t help but tease the man beside him, “By the way, do you remember the day of your department’s graduation dinner? You drank too much and collapsed on your counselor’s car hood, refusing to get up. He turned on the headlights and had everyone in your department gather around you for a group photo. He even sent the picture of you sleeping to the freshman group as a negative example for safety education.”

Zhou Sifu’s brow twitched slightly, most of his face hidden in the shadow of the streetlights. “…I remember.”

That day was the first time he had been pressured by his classmates into getting dead drunk. It was Shi Tian who had hurriedly hailed a taxi, dragged him and the wine bottle in his arms all the way home.

“It wasn’t alcohol abuse,” he said. “I lost a bet.”

Unscrewing his water to take a sip, Shi Tian turned his head curiously. “What bet?”

“Nothing,” Zhou Sifu’s tone was calm. “Just a bet on who would be the first in our department to get married after graduation.”

He looked at the zebra crossing straight ahead. “It’s all because Old Ge was too fast. He went home for a blind date right after graduation and got his certificate in less than three days.”

The fingers gripping the bottle cap curled slightly. Shi Tian scratched his nose. “That is indeed quite fast.”

Zhou Sifu: “Yeah.”

He didn’t expect that a casual mention of a past event would make the atmosphere between them even more awkward.

Instinctively wanting to change the subject, Shi Tian heard Zhou Sifu ask first, “What do you plan to do next?”

“After the lawsuit ends?”

Hugging his legs, Shi Tian looked up at the thick night sky and sighed slowly. “I don’t know yet. I’ll take it one step at a time. If possible, I plan to find a private equity firm to work for as a consultant to have a stable income first.”

Zhou Sifu spoke unhurriedly, “You’re buried in debt. Which private equity firm would dare to take you?”

Shi Tian: “…”

His mistake was letting his guard down around Zhou Sifu. The friendly walk down memory lane was officially over.

They say enemies always cross paths; he had planned to never see this man again after their breakup, so why did he ever expect to hear anything good from Zhou Sifu’s mouth?

“My affairs are none of President Zhou’s concern.”

Patting his backside and standing up from the flower bed, Shi Tian picked up the leftover trash and gave the man a fake smile. “It’s late. I’m going back to the hotel.”

He had planned to part ways with Zhou Sifu right there, but Zhou Sifu said that the Marriott was the only parking lot nearby and he had his driver waiting for him there. So, the two had to walk side by side for another stretch.

Shi Tian noticed that Zhou Sifu seemed to be in a good mood today. His hair was a bit messy from the wind, and he walked with one hand in his pocket, looking quite relaxed. Even though he still gave off the same impression as usual—a bit reserved with a sense of distance—the faint smile lingering on his lips made him look more relaxed and happier than ever.

Arriving at the Marriott one after the other, Shi Tian stood outside the hotel lobby and said to Zhou Sifu behind him, “I’m off. Let’s grab a meal some other time.”

Zhou Sifu raised his eyebrows slightly, looking at Shi Tian with a meaningful gaze. “Then I shall wait for President Shi’s invitation.”

After a simple goodbye, Shi Tian was about to swipe his card to enter the lobby when he suddenly seemed to see someone. He stopped dead in his tracks, his gaze passing through the transparent glass revolving doors, staring blankly at the center of the lobby.

Zhou Sifu seemed completely unaware of his unusual behavior. He laughed behind him and asked, “President Shi isn’t leaving yet?”

Thinking quickly, Shi Tian suddenly held his breath, turned around, and grabbed Zhou Sifu’s collar.

Caught by his tie, Zhou Sifu’s smile froze on his face. “?”

In the next second, he was pushed back by the person in front of him, his back nearly hitting the marble pillar outside the lobby.

He heard Shi Tian’s voice, suppressed with a slight tremor, speak less than ten centimeters from his ear:

“…Zhou Sifu, play along.”

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