The piano room upstairs.
Huo Youqing had just ended a phone call. Before he could block the number, the phone rang again.
He knew exactly who was calling.
Since the third day of his trip abroad, Gong Lang had been calling him, using one number after another. Huo Youqing kept blocking each new number, but within two minutes, a new message popped up. It was still from Gong Lang, who had changed to another number.
The message contained the same old words.
“Youyou, I really know I was wrong. That night, I truly lost my mind. I promise it won’t happen again. Please forgive me this one time, okay?”
If it weren’t for his memory, Huo Youqing might have forgiven Gong Lang. But after regaining his memory, even the slightest possibility of forgiveness was completely erased.
It turned out that Gong Lang had hurt him again and again. Huo Youqing had thought it was justified because he had first hurt Dai Yixin, so Gong Lang’s anger seemed reasonable. Moreover, the things his cousin had told him—since he hadn’t experienced them firsthand—didn’t carry much weight for him.
But now he remembered everything clearly.
During the time after graduating from university and living in the country, there was one instance where he nearly succeeded in committing suicide. At first, he didn’t plan on doing it, but somehow, late at night on the highway, he found himself driving faster and faster, until he could barely see the tunnel lights reflecting through the windshield.
After rushing out of the tunnel, he saw headlights shining from the distance, like the eyes of the Loch Ness Monster, tempting him with death’s gift—an escape. Huo Youqing felt like he had already stepped into the cold lake, and all it would take was one more step for the water to cover his head.
Everything would be over.
But then, he suddenly thought of his cousin.
In his third year of university, he fainted in a cemetery, and in his dazed state, he felt someone holding his hand. Tears from that person’s face fell on his fingers, and the person begged him not to die.
Later, he heard the same person say he was his only family left in this world.
At that moment, Huo Youqing snapped back to his senses. He realized that if he was going to commit suicide, he shouldn’t do it this way. Speeding on the highway wasn’t just dangerous to himself, but to others too. He knew perfectly well that his aunt and uncle had died in a car accident—how could he end his life the same way?
But he had been driving too fast, and seeing that he was about to crash into the car ahead, he jerked the steering wheel hard, turning it several times, followed by a loud crash.
“Bang—”
His car flipped.
Huo Youqing was trapped between the airbag and the seat, and he thought he could smell gasoline. He couldn’t help but wonder if the car was about to catch fire. He knew he should crawl out, but he couldn’t move.
He glanced to the side, only to realize there was someone in the passenger seat.
The person didn’t look much better than he did, covered in blood. He took a long moment to recognize the person—it was Dai Yixin.
His memory had been bad lately; he had been forgetting things. He had even forgotten that today he went out with Dai Yixin. Dai Yixin was supposed to drive, but Huo Youqing had snatched the keys, narrowing his eyes at him with a challenging look. “I’m driving today. Do you dare sit with me?”
Dai Yixin just stared at him, not speaking for a long time.
At that, Huo Youqing had thrown the keys back, scowling. “If you’re scared, forget it.”
In a matter of seconds, the keys were back in his hand. Dai Yixin handed them over, his long, slender fingers brushing against Huo Youqing’s.
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t dare, as long as you’re by my side. I’ll do anything.” Those amber eyes sparkled, like their owner was about to attend a grand appointment.
Does a meeting with death count as grand?
He sped up the entire way, and Dai Yixin remained silent throughout. When the car flipped, he heard Dai Yixin say to the rescuers:
“Save him first!”
The words were squeezed out through clenched teeth.
Huo Youqing recalled that he had jerked the steering wheel to the left just now. He was already in too much pain to speak, so how was Dai Yixin still able to make any sound?
Before he could think more, he blacked out. When he woke up, he was given two pieces of news.
First, Dai Yixin was in the ICU and hadn’t woken up yet.
Second, everyone believed that he had deliberately tried to murder Dai Yixin.
Because of this, Gong Lang and Qiu Wenfei barged into his hospital room without a word and lectured him. Especially Gong Lang, who demanded that he kneel at Dai Yixin’s bedside, apologize, and take a photo to post on social media.
Huo Youqing was someone who cared a lot about saving face. Otherwise, the day after he got drunk at the villa, he wouldn’t have avoided both options presented to him.
The year his aunt and uncle died, many people looked at him with eyes full of sympathy and pity. He had seen that look before as a child.
Whenever people found out his parents had died young, they would look at him that way, as if he were the most pitiful person in the world. But he wanted to say he wasn’t.
He still had other family. The love his aunt and uncle gave him was no less than what parents gave their children.
But after they passed away, those eyes became like knives, cutting into his flesh, scraping his bones, constantly reminding him that his aunt and uncle were gone.
Qiu Wenfei might not have known how much he cared about appearances, but Gong Lang did. That’s why he came up with such a cruel method. Gong Lang knew exactly how to hurt him the most.
Later, when Dai Yixin woke up, those infamous kneeling photos disappeared from social circles overnight. No one mentioned them anymore, but not mentioning them didn’t mean they hadn’t happened.
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