A Broken Mirror Never Mends - Chapter 28

Shi Tian still remembered that when he attended the graduation ball for the Peking University Business School, his dance partner was Zhou Sifu.

Back then, their relationship was no secret at Peking University. The girls on the campus forums were obsessed with shipping them, and their close friends constantly buzzed in their ears, asking when they would get their marriage certificates after graduation.

Whenever he was asked, the guy with the surname Zhou always gave the same answer.

“Soon, soon,” Zhou Sifu’s tone sounded quite casual. “Besides, I’m the one marrying my wife home. What are you guys in such a hurry for?”

At the time, Shi Tian always thought the guy was just being mouthy and that his words weren’t to be taken seriously. He never expected that on the night of the ball, after finishing the final dance while holding Zhou Sifu’s hand, Zhou Sifu would suddenly drop to one knee in front of him before the entire faculty.

The overhead lights shone down on the two of them. Zhou Sifu took a red velvet ring box from his pocket. His eyes flickered slightly, but his face wore a hint of awkwardness.

From the moment they met until then, Shi Tian had never seen the guy look so nervous.

Even though he had rehearsed the lines countless times in his head, Zhou Sifu’s voice still shook: “…Hey, Ten days.”

Before Zhou Sifu could finish, Shi Tian had already grabbed his sleeve, his face flushed bright red, and pulled him running out the main doors.

His heart thudded so fast it felt like it would break through his chest. He opened his mouth to take a deep breath, but the rushing wind choked him, leaving him breathless for a moment.

He heard Zhou Sifu’s laughter drifting from afar in the wind, carrying his usual playfulness yet sounding incredibly tender: “Ten days, is that a yes or a no?”

“…”

Bending over with his hands on his knees, Shi Tian’s heartbeat was still a mess; he felt like he was going to die.

“Ten days,” the person behind him whispered sneakily, “Wife.”

Shi Tian gasped, raised his hand, and turned to strike, but his voice failed him: “…Go away!”

Zhou Sifu kept laughing, rested an arm on his back, leaned over to kiss his forehead, and whispered repeatedly in his ear: “Wife, wife, wife, wife—”

He remembered now. The ring in that red velvet box was one Zhou Sifu had bought by scrimpingly saving his living expenses for an entire year. Although it wasn’t a top-tier brand, the diamond set in it was a finished product Zhou Sifu had spent a long time practicing for in secret, ruining countless materials to carve it stroke by stroke.

A line of small characters was engraved on the inside of the band. It was invisible to the naked eye; only under sunlight, through the brilliant light reflected by the diamond’s facets, could the secret be seen.

Later, on the day they broke up, he took the ring off and gave it back to Zhou Sifu. Zhou Sifu clutched the ring tightly in his palm but said nothing.

Even later, a new engagement ring appeared on his ring finger. It was a Harry Winston global limited custom piece from Ji Yuanlin, countless times more expensive than the one from years ago.

The past stood out vividly, as if everything were right before his eyes. It turned out that in his young and ignorant days, he had also promised his life to someone in private.

But if he had to remember, all that stood between them now was a blank eight-year gap.

When he occasionally stopped to look back, all that remained was the parting.

The melody of String Quartet No. 1 gradually faded, and immediately after, the musicians in the center of the ballroom began to play a new orchestral piece.

Bowing slightly like a gentleman, the man in front of him asked, “Do you remember this one?”

After reflecting for a moment, Shi Tian said thoughtfully, “Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead.”

This was the symphonic poem that had left the deepest impression on him during his music appreciation class in college. This piece wasn’t passionate like other symphonies; from beginning to end, it exuded a dreamlike calm. The melody was filled with sadness and solemnity, yet it made the listener feel a momentary purification and sublimation.

Such a piece was perfectly suited for him and Zhou Sifu. There was no need to intentionally create an ambiguous atmosphere; it was a pure collision of body language and logic.

Figures intertwined in the rotunda. Zhou Sifu gently rested a hand on his lower back, guiding him slowly to the center of the stage.

The warm, rough palm pressed against his clothing, making Shi Tian’s back stiffen unnaturally. Sensing his back was still stiff with tension, the tall man leaned forward slightly and whispered by his ear, “If President Shi feels offended, I can stop at any time.”

Glimpsing at the people around them and noticing that no one had yet paid attention to the arrival of these two uninvited guests, Shi Tian bit his lip and lowered his voice: “I’m fine… hurry up.”

With Shi Tian’s silent permission, Zhou Sifu curled his lips in the dark. He no longer just led his partner slowly through the dance floor but took Shi Tian’s hand, his heel lightly brushing the smooth floor as he leaned slightly to the left.

Shi Tian remembered the basic steps. He instinctively followed Zhou Sifu’s movements, stepping back, only to find the man in front of him shift his center of gravity, pressing most of his body weight onto him.

Shi Tian’s spine stiffened. He instinctively reached out his other hand to prop himself against something to avoid falling, but Zhou Sifu, seeing this, slowly shifted the balance of power to Shi Tian’s shoulder, forcing him to tilt his neck back and lock eyes with him.

If he raised his eyelashes just a tiny bit more, he could look straight into the deepest part of the other’s pupils.

His mind in a whirl, Shi Tian held his breath and instinctively tried to turn his head to avoid the man’s looming, intense gaze, only to hear the person inches away part his lips and speak leisurely: “President Shi, we’ve arrived.”

Steadying his figure and letting his heels touch the ground, Zhou Sifu naturally let go of his back.

Avoiding Zhou Sifu’s deep gaze, Shi Tian quickly turned around and found an emergency exit behind them, meant only for internal staff. The door was slightly ajar, and voices could be heard faintly from inside.

They exchanged a look. Zhou Sifu gave him a gesture, meaning he would go in first and for Shi Tian to follow behind him.

Lightening his footsteps, he followed Zhou Sifu through a long hallway. He found a room at the end that looked like a dressing room. A thick curtain blocked the doorway, but the scene inside was still visible through the gaps.

The lighting in the room was dim, the only source being a string of small LED lights on the vanity mirror. There were six people inside. Shi Tian only recognized one: Cheng Xi, who was curled up on the floor with his hands tied behind his back, soaked to the bone.

The “Uncle” Zhou Sifu had mentioned, the middle-aged man who always wore a Tang suit—was not present. Aside from two men in black who looked like bodyguards in the corner, two young men wearing feathered masks sat on the sofa.

Narrowing his eyes to examine them for a moment, Shi Tian realized that although the two in the room were masked, their builds were very similar to the two young businessmen he had encountered in the hotel elevator earlier.

Cheng Xi’s body trembled uncontrollably on the cold floor, but he kept his head buried in his chest, refusing to look at the two men staring down at him from the sofa.

Looking coldly at the frail figure on the floor, one of the men on the sofa waved, signaling a bodyguard in the corner to step forward.

“…Cheng Xi, you’re being so stubborn, it’s making things hard for us.” The young man sighed helplessly. “If you still refuse to say anything, we’ll be the ones in trouble when Godfather blames us. Don’t you agree?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the bodyguard took off his gloves, stepped up to Cheng Xi, grabbed his collar, and slapped him hard across the face.

The slap was brutal, immediately staining the boy’s fair cheek with a deep flush, and a thin trail of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

Suppressing the gasps coming from his throat, Cheng Xi spoke slowly: “Mr. Mu, Uncle Bai said he could give me two more months…”

“I’ll say it one last time,”

The man called “Mr. Mu” said coldly, “We don’t care how you play house with that guy Ji. We only want you to copy the source files he’s preparing to take abroad. Is that so hard?”

With his hands tightly tied, Cheng Xi had no way to break free from the bodyguard’s grip. He could only tilt his head up, a hint of plea in his voice: “All the data regarding that new technology is locked in a safe. He doesn’t let me touch those things…”

“Give me a few more days. Once we go abroad, I—”

“Wait until you go abroad?” Mr. Mu couldn’t help but laugh. “Cheng Xi, oh Cheng Xi, do you really think we don’t know what you’re planning? Once you’ve actually run off with Ji, the world is a big place. Who could find you then?”

Saying this, Mr. Mu gave a gesture to the two bodyguards. Hearing the command, the two bodyguards turned and entered a storage room next to the dressing room.

Seeing the figure being dragged out of the storage room, stumbling between the two bodyguards, Cheng Xi’s face changed instantly.

A middle-aged man in simple clothes was roughly pinned to the floor by the bodyguards, forced into a half-kneel in front of Cheng Xi. The man was covered in bruises and looked incredibly battered; he had clearly just been severely beaten by these people.

Noticing the similarity between Cheng Xi’s features and the middle-aged man’s, Shi Tian, standing outside the door, turned his head and asked Zhou Sifu with his eyes: …Is this Cheng Xi’s father?

He received a silent confirmation from Zhou Sifu’s eyes.

Looking at the father and son on the floor, the other man who hadn’t spoken smiled and said: “Cheng Xi, why don’t you ask your dad? With all those gambling debts he owes, does he even have a life left to pay them back in two months?”

“…” Cheng Xi bit his lip hard, his brow furrowed in pain. “I still have several properties in the city. Those houses—”

“No need,” the man said. “Since you have no use left, why don’t we let your dad see with his own eyes today exactly how his son usually earns money.”

Hearing him clap his hands, the two bodyguards pushed the middle-aged man to the ground and then moved to stand on either side of Cheng Xi. In front of everyone, they reached for their belts.

Realizing what these two were about to do, Cheng Xi’s eyes widened slowly, revealing a look of unmaskable fear and despair.

“No…” he muttered, desperately struggling to move backward. “I beg you, please, don’t…”

Seeing him trying to escape, the two bodyguards quickly chased after him, intending to block his path. Unexpectedly, a strong will to survive erupted in Cheng Xi. After squirming desperately on the floor for a moment, he still tried everything to escape out the door.

Just as he was tripped by the two bodyguards and his forehead slammed against the door threshold, he suddenly seemed to see someone outside the door. He froze instantly.

Dazed for a moment, a pitiable groan escaped his throat: “…Mr. Zhou, save me—”

Hearing Cheng Xi suddenly say this, the people both outside and inside the room were stunned.

Shi Tian never expected Cheng Xi’s eyes to be so sharp.

To be safe, both he and Zhou Sifu were standing in a blind spot away from the cameras, their backs nearly touching. Even though the unlit hallway was pitch black, this person managed to recognize who the newcomer was in the dark.

The moment Cheng Xi called out his name, he felt Zhou Sifu’s spine stiffen beside him; the man almost lost his composure.

Before Shi Tian could react, Zhou Sifu turned back and whispered to him: “Stay here. Don’t make a sound.”

With that, Zhou Sifu slightly masked his emotions, lifted the curtain, and walked inside with an air of swagger.

The people in the room clearly hadn’t expected his appearance. After a brief second of shock, the two bodyguards at the door let go of Cheng Xi and bowed respectfully to Zhou Sifu: “Young Master Zhou.”

Seeing the newcomer, Mr. Mu’s face was full of surprise: “…Sifu, why are you here?”

They were both godsons that Uncle Bai had taken in privately. They had met Zhou Sifu many times at dinners, and their relationship was fairly familiar.

The curve of Zhou Sifu’s lips remained unchanged: “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”

“Uncle Bai invited you to the party, and instead, you two are hiding in a place like this, doing this kind of thing in secret.” He spoke coldly, his tone carrying a light mockery. “If I hadn’t happened to see it, were you planning to play until someone died?”

The two men opposite exchanged a look, their expressions somewhat uneasy.

“…Sifu, it’s really not what you think.”

Mr. Mu’s expression was sheepish. “This kid has a bit of a grudge with Godfather. He didn’t do what Godfather told him, so we were just about to teach him a lesson.”

Zhou Sifu raised an eyebrow slightly, as if curious: “What kind of grudge? Tell me about it.”

Mr. Mu was about to continue when he was suddenly nudged by the god-brother beside him.

He was slightly dazed, then remembered he seemed to have heard somewhere that Cheng Xi once had a rumored relationship with this young prince of the Qi family. Whether it was true or not, he wasn’t sure.

Thinking for a moment, Mr. Mu immediately put on a flattering smile, trying to find a way out: “Since Sifu is here, then let’s call it a night. This person is yours tonight. Just remember to tell us later how he tasted.”

Hearing this, Zhou Sifu leaned against the door with one hand in his pocket and laughed: “I appreciate the gesture, gentlemen. But I have a beauty by my side tonight; I really don’t have the leisure for that.”

Lifting his chin toward the open window in the cabin, he commanded the two bodyguards behind him: “Throw them out. Feed them to the fish.”

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