The Long Night - Chapter 43

Tang Shaocheng took the ingredients from the refrigerator, went to the kitchen, chopped them up on the cutting board, and put them on plates for later use. He then put a pot on the stove, boiled water, and added cooking wine and minced scallions and ginger.

Yan Liao followed him behind, and the puppy also followed Yan Liao closely, as if they had activated a follow-me mode. The three family members formed a greedy snake walking around the house, or a Thomas the Tank Engine train. In any case, Tang Shaocheng often had to stop and rub his temples, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

This summer seemed to be wrapped in a city-wide romance. When they went out, they often saw archways and balloons at the entrance of restaurants, congratulating a certain gentleman and lady on their marriage.

Li Yi-yun also got married in early August. His wife was a friend he met at a climbing club. The two of them dated and got their marriage certificate in just half a year, but their relationship was very sweet.

Tang Shaocheng brought Yan Liao to the wedding banquet. Li Yi-yun knew about their relationship, so he deliberately didn’t accept the red envelope Tang Shaocheng gave him and introduced him to his wife, saying, “He’s just my colleague, and my best friend.”

Yan Liao looked at the two people standing together in a suit and a wedding dress and was also infected by the atmosphere of the scene. He felt very happy. In the past, he rarely got emotional because of other people’s affairs, but now, he had unconsciously changed a little. It was probably because he was becoming more and more like that person.

The wedding banquet was very lively. In the middle of the banquet, Li Yi-yun called Tang Shaocheng over to block drinks. When Yan Liao was alone, Zhou Yu-nan came over to talk to him and even got him an ice cream cone from somewhere.

The other colleagues at the table were also very nice to him. Yan Liao thought that because Tang Shaocheng was so nice, even if he wasn’t keen on making friends, there were still people who were willing to be honest with him, and these people took care of him out of love for Tang Shaocheng.

Some uninformed colleagues still thought he was Tang Shaocheng’s younger brother and asked him indirectly, “Does your brother have a girlfriend?” Yan Liao faced this question as calmly as before, but he changed his answer. “He’s not married yet, but he already has a one-and-a-half-year-old child.”

The few colleagues who were trying to get information from him looked at each other. Zhou Yu-nan smiled as he listened to Yan Liao slandering and said at the right time, “The kid just likes to joke around.”

Two months had passed, but Ge Dong-lin still often thought about the scene from that night in the gaps between work. That night, he became Prometheus, who stole fire, but he wouldn’t regret it even if he was burned to ashes.

Outside the window was the bustling city night view. The lights flickered tirelessly. The night navigation lights on the roof of the building across the street looked like a frozen shooting star.

Afterward, he and Lu Xiao lay in bed together. He had finally gotten what he had desired for a long time, which brought him a sense of warmth, satisfaction, and a little bit of melancholy. It was in this complicated atmosphere that he heard Lu Xiao’s clear and calm voice.

“We’re not like we were in high school anymore. I can’t protect you with my fists like I used to,” Lu Xiao had always spoken candidly and wouldn’t speak irresponsibly just to save face. “All I can really do is be with you.”

At this moment, it seemed more appropriate to say things like, “I’ll be responsible for you,” or “I’ll protect you forever.” But his honesty was a little too blunt. Ge Dong-lin, however, slowly smiled.

“That’s enough,” his voice was incredibly clear in the dark and hazy night. “For me, that’s enough.”

This was all he needed—a person who didn’t want anything from him but was willing to be with him.

The sound of cicadas in the grass outside the window seeped in. He could faintly hear the rustling of the leaves in the wind.

Ge Dong-lin had never thought that his puberty would be so long. Even now, he could still empathize with his teenage self’s greed for love, even if this love was more from his imagination.

That night, the two of them talked until dawn. Ge Dong-lin remembered saying a lot of things. After he became an adult, he gave off a more taciturn impression, but now he was talking as if he were pouring out beans. He could even remember things he thought he had forgotten while narrating them.

“The year I started college, after military training, there was a ten-day holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. I didn’t go home. After hearing that you were staying at school, I went to find you.”

“Before I left, I got two boxes of mooncakes from the school’s supermarket, one with red bean paste and one with black sesame. I rarely ate mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival before, so I didn’t know these were the most common and ordinary flavors. I was so stupid at the time and thought only our school sold this kind of mooncake. I still remember to this day that the first time I went to see you, I only brought you two mooncakes.”

“Every time I think about it, I find it funny. But the courage to pack a suitcase and get on a train is probably something you only have once in your life. When I was eighteen, all I wanted was to see the person I liked. It was that simple.”

Many things become simple when you go back to the beginning.

This was not the first time Yu Xing had secretly come to see Tang Shaocheng.

Qin Yun-qi had been watching him very closely recently and refused to give him a pass to come and go as he pleased. Since he couldn’t find anyone else, he had to ask Tang Shaocheng to take him in.

“I haven’t seen him in almost a week,” Yu Xing bit the bullet and told the truth. “Mr. Tang, he’s actually my boyfriend. We’ve been dating for half a year.”

Tang Shaocheng stared at his expression with a complex look. “Do you like him very much?”

Yu Xing was caught off guard by the question. He didn’t expect Tang Shaocheng to ask so directly. He was a little shy but nodded without hesitation. “Yes.”

Tang Shaocheng was silent for a while, then sighed and said, “I’ll take you.”

Yu Xing’s happy expression made his entire face light up. His smile was like a fresh lemon that had just been picked from a tree. He quickly followed Tang Shaocheng. “Thank you, Mr. Tang.”

The Qin Group’s building looked like a giant birdcage.

Tang Shaocheng took him into the company. Yu Xing’s looks were too outstanding. Every time he went out, he had to wear a wig and a face mask that covered his eyes. He didn’t mind the trouble in such hot weather, just to be able to see Qin Yun-qi.

In his previous life, Tang Shaocheng had hardly ever seen Yu Xing in his normal state. He was always either gesticulating in sign language incoherently or saying some disjointed sentences vaguely.

But no matter what, it all came down to one thing: Qin Yun-qi had been forcing him, and he had always hated him. The two of them hated each other so much that they both wished the other would die sooner.

When Qin Yun-qi saw Yu Xing, he was still angry for a while, but it didn’t seem like he was really angry. He told Yu Xing to wait and then told his assistant that he was leaving early today.

Yu Xing asked him expectantly, “Are you taking me out? Do you want to call the driver to pick us up?”

“No need for a driver.”

Qin Yun-qi preferred to hold the steering wheel himself. When he spoke, he also used a commanding tone, as if he was in control of everything. These characteristics overlapped a lot with Tang Shaocheng’s memories.

But now, he was walking arm in arm with Yu Xing, and they were standing together intimately. Tang Shaocheng felt like an outsider and, for no reason, remembered the feeling of witnessing happiness at the wedding.

Qin Yun-qi had a pair of eyes that were very similar to his father’s—narrow and deep, as if they were always shrouded in shadows. Only when he slightly smiled would you see a different expression.

“Mr. Tang, don’t tell my dad about this.”

Qin Yun-qi winked at him. This small gesture distinguished him from Qin Li. “It’s not that I’m afraid the old man will die. It’s just that once he dies, I’ll have to take over all the mess,” he shrugged. “I still want to play for a few more years.”

Tang Shaocheng looked at them and, after a moment, nodded. “I won’t say anything.”

In this life, Tang Shaocheng had also thought about who he would help fight against whom if the situation was the same as before. Although emotionally he wanted to help the weak, and he felt a vague sense of guilt toward Yu Xing, he instinctively felt a sense of vigilance toward the Qin Group.

But now, it seemed that these two people didn’t have any conflicts that would make them hate each other to the bone. They didn’t have any now, and it didn’t seem like they would suddenly turn against each other in the future.

The vast white fog in front of him would sometimes gather and sometimes disperse. The gears of fate meshed together inseparably.

From the time he was an intern at the law firm with Li Yi-yun and saw the case of the worker’s suicide, to the time he met Yu Xing alone in the underground parking lot, it all seemed to be a foreshadowing of fate, as if it was telling him that the price of being reborn was to enter this black vortex again, and that there was no such thing as getting out unscathed.

Tang Shaocheng had thought about trying his best to avoid these things, to avoid cases related to the Qin Group, even if it meant going against his conscience and professional ethics of seeking the truth. He could pretend not to know Yu Xing, not help him out, and not investigate the Qin Group’s dirty deeds. If he did this, he could live his life like an ostrich with its head in the sand. But he couldn’t do it.

He had tried to bury all the secrets of his past life in a tomb deep in his memory and then leave the place where it was buried, running desperately like a fugitive on the run.

It wasn’t until one day he suddenly realized that the path he was running on was a loop.

Everyone from his memories came back. They all came back in a new form and surrounded him from all sides. He thought he was getting further and further away from the past, but in reality, he was infinitely closer to the truth he didn’t find back then.

In the years when Tang Shaocheng was an intern, Qin Li, who was so busy with his work, still noticed that there was a budding lawyer who was very curious about the Qin Group’s affairs and was able to find clues much faster than he had expected. He was briefly puzzled as to why this young man, who was a stranger to him and had no conflicts of interest with him, would want to know these things.

But he didn’t stir up trouble. Instead, he reached out a hand to Tang Shaocheng with the kindness and friendliness of an elder and took this person under his watchful eye.

His assistant quickly found the information. Qin Li looked at the character “Yan” on the paper and quickly thought of his subordinate who had worked with him more than twenty years ago. This was probably that child’s father.

Compared to hitting the nail on the head, he preferred to let everyone find their place on the chessboard and then peel away the layers to let these people see each other’s hidden faces. The feeling of orchestrating everything was great. Qin Li felt that his complexion had become a little rosier.

“Mr. Tang, Mr. Qin would like you to come up for a moment.”

The secretary called. Tang Shaocheng replied, “Okay,” put down the phone, and walked toward the elevator.

The dim yellow sky was like a layer of tea stains on a porcelain cup.

The temperature of the air conditioner in the office was slightly high. If you came in with something on your mind, you would probably break out in a sweat just by standing there.

Tang Shaocheng was used to keeping a calm expression even when the sky was falling. Qin Li was even more composed. While maintaining his composure, he could always have a smile on his face.

“There’s something I need you to do, but it’s not for the company. It’s just a personal matter,” Qin Li got straight to the point and handed him a card with an address written in black and white. “You know Yu Xing, right? Are you friends?” His smile was gentle, and the small wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were like ripples on a pond caused by the autumn wind. “Just get him to come here.”

Qin Li’s narrow eyes had a cold glint, like a cunning fox. This naked test was like the first step of taming. If he passed, he would be closer to Qin Li’s plan.

Tang Shaocheng suddenly understood. It was never a life-and-death struggle between Qin Yun-qi and Yu Xing. Qin Li just wanted to break them up.

In his previous life, the two of them never realized whose trap they had fallen into. Tang Shaocheng pieced together the fragments of his memory. From the time Yu Xing wanted to leave and was caught at the airport, the two of them were on a path with only a tragic ending in sight.

Tang Shaocheng agreed. After he left, he went straight downstairs. He lowered his head in the elevator, his thumb rubbing the black address. He finally crumpled it up in his palm and put it in the pocket of his suit pants.

Sandalwood incense was burning in the office, which had a calming effect.

Qin Li seemed to know what was happening outside and smiled meaningfully. He picked up his phone and dialed a number. The phone rang for only one second before it was answered.

Ge Dong-lin’s voice came clearly through the phone. “Mr. Qin.”

Qin Li only gave him a few simple instructions, and the other person replied without any hesitation. “Okay, I know what to do.”

Yu Xing’s screen lit up in the dark. He swiped to unlock it and saw a message from Ge Dong-lin. “Meet the director at Mingyue Restaurant at 7 p.m. tonight.”

He rubbed his eyes to fight off the drowsiness. Even with a sudden work notification, he didn’t have the right to refuse. He quickly typed, “Okay, I got it.”

The moon hung in the pitch-black night sky as if it were dying. A silver extended limousine sped past. Yu Xing looked out the window. The car was going very fast, and the streetlights were moving backward very fast, as if cold daggers were flashing in front of his retina, all of which were narrowly avoided.

The phone in his hand vibrated twice. Yu Xing answered the call and put it to his ear. “Hello?”

“Come back quickly.”

Qin Yun-qi’s voice was cold and serious, with a hint of unlearned anger that he couldn’t control. “Tell the driver to drive the car to the villa and wait for me to get there.”

Yu Xing held the phone tightly and explained cautiously, “I’m going to meet the director, the investors, the producer, the screenwriter, and a few of the main actors. There are a lot of people.” He thought the other person was just being possessive and jealous, so he patiently explained. “It’s just for a meal with them.”

There was a loud crash on Qin Yun-qi’s end, as if he had kicked something over. When he spoke again, his suppressed anger erupted like a volcano. “I told you to come back, so come back! Stop with the fucking nonsense!”

In an instant, all sounds returned to silence.

Qin Yun-qi angrily threw his phone to the side. “I was just playing around. Do you have to be so serious about it?”

His hands were on the desk. Something was violently crushed in his eyes. Every word was heavily enunciated, like he was cracking a walnut with a pair of pliers. A table full of fragments was crushed under his palm.

Qin Li spoke slowly. “If you were just playing around, I wouldn’t even know his name.”

“I like him,” the veins on Qin Yun-qi’s arm on the desk bulged. “I just fell for a man. What are you going to do about it?”

The first time he saw Yu Xing, this person was still singing in a bar. Not to mention debuting, no one would even accept his application form to participate in a talent show. Qin Yun-qi sat in the audience and listened to him sing. He suddenly wanted to see what the person on stage looked like. When he saw that delicate and beautiful face immersed in the spotlight, he wanted to see more expressions on that face.

He thought he was just picking up a pretty stone and throwing it into a fish tank. He didn’t expect to turn this stone into a necklace and wear it around his neck.

“Don’t you understand?” Qin Li shook his head, his gaze tolerant and calm, as if he were looking at a child who had made a mistake. “This has nothing to do with whether he is a man or a woman.”

“I’m not forcing you to marry anyone. I don’t care if you like men or women,” he spread his hands, like an open-minded father. “But you can’t have a weakness. Do you understand?”