Chapter 40: Another Outburst
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In the enclosed dim room, there were no other sounds except for the solitary reverberation of the piano, seamless from beginning to end without a hint of gap.
This was a piece composed by Xu Yibai himself, a time when nothing had happened between him and Shen Yao. He held Shen Yao in his arms and gently guided his hand to press a few keys.
He transformed those few notes into a melody, not excessively difficult but infused with all his love. He prepared to perform it at a concert, playing it for Shen Yao in the audience.
This piece should have been gentle and beautiful like spring water, but now it exposed the performer’s restless and ferocious emotions, resembling the roaring of thunder.
The rhythm, however, accelerated as time passed, becoming like the constant drumming in a torrential downpour.
Xu Yibai had practiced it countless times; he shouldn’t have made mistakes in this piece.
He played it over and over again, expecting it to become increasingly proficient. In reality, the piano notes grew more chaotic, like a car derailing from its tracks, knowingly heading down a dead-end path yet forcefully colliding with the sturdy tree.
His fingers swiftly danced on the piano keys, each strike fueled by great force, the speed so fast that it left no room for him to catch his breath.
Only in this way could he avoid thinking about other things.
“No, that’s not it…”
Xu Yibai realized he had played a wrong note, his breathing grew heavier as he tried to correct it. Sweat dripped from his forehead, but his fingers forcefully struck the piano keys, emitting a resounding “buzz” sound.
The echoes reverberated in his ears as Xu Yibai slowly straightened his body, holding his forehead. Playing the piano used to be his method of calming his emotions, but now it seemed to have lost its effect.
During this period, he confined himself to the piano room, while the sofa was piled with things that didn’t belong to him, resembling a small mountain.
Frantically rummaging through drawers and cabinets, Xu Yibai retrieved these items in a frenzy. It was only then that he realized, after so many years together, there were only a few belongings of Shen Yao’s left in his house.
From start to finish, he had been thinking about leaving.
A ringing began in Xu Yibai’s ears, and he didn’t even hear the sound of the door opening. High-heeled shoes clicked on the floor, approaching with a forceful sound.
The graceful figure of a female alpha, resembling Xu Yibai, wore an impatient expression. However, she exuded a fierce and assertive aura that made people hesitant to approach. She raised her hand and forcefully smashed the limited edition bag she held onto Xu Yibai, showing no sign of remorse.
The bag was adorned with studs, and as it hit Xu Yibai’s cheek, it slid down, leaving a scar. Xu Yibai, however, felt no pain. He remained silent, unlike himself, and slowly spoke, “Sister.”
“Why didn’t I smash you to death?” Gu Yunyun raised an eyebrow, coldly snorting in frustration. “Look at you, so useless. You’ve been preparing for your concert for so many years, putting in so much effort, and now you go and tell Sister Li that you want to postpone the performance? You even had her keep it a secret from me. If she hadn’t realized something was wrong and come to me, would I still be in the dark because of you? Have you gone crazy, Xu Yibai? You’re giving up on your reputation, your career, your dreams, all of it?”
Xu Yibai didn’t feel like he was in a state to perform on stage lately. He would mess up everything. He remained silent, quietly listening to the accusations.
“Just because he’s an omega? Is it worth driving yourself to this near-death state? I’ve told you countless times that your omega is unreliable, but you didn’t listen to my advice. You were just unwilling to break up. Now you’re telling me you don’t regret it? If you had distanced yourself earlier, you wouldn’t have suffered so much!”
Xu Yibai was seven years younger than her and had a different surname, one inherited from his father while she took their mother’s surname. Perhaps it was due to their surnames, but their personalities were completely opposite. However, it didn’t affect their relationship; instead, it formed a good complement between them.
Gu Yunyun always felt that her younger brother had too mild of a temper, too gentle of a character, not at all like a strong-willed alpha.
It wasn’t until Xu Yibai got into a fight at school that she realized her brother did have a temper; he just didn’t like arguments. But if his boundaries were crossed, Xu Yibai wouldn’t back down in the slightest.
Xu Yibai raised his gaze to look at her, finally uttering his first words of the evening, “I don’t regret it.”
There was no remedy for regrets in this world. He chose to be with Shen Yao because he liked him, and they had indeed been happy during their relationship. The hurt he experienced from Shen Yao was also a choice he made himself.
He wouldn’t regret it; he was just sad. Sad that Shen Yao’s heart changed so quickly, sad that their promises were scattered by the wind, sad that Shen Yao seemed to have never truly been moved.
“You stubborn mule,” Gu Yunyun cursed at him again. “From childhood to now, there have been very few things you’ve liked. But once you like something, you like it till the end. The things you enjoyed eating as a child, you still enjoy now. You’ve been practicing the piano since you were young without a single complaint, and so you want to like the first person you’ve ever liked until death, is that it?”
Xu Yibai’s lips moved slightly, but he didn’t retort. Shadows cast across his face as his eyelashes lowered.
It was the first time Gu Yunyun had seen him in such a sorrowful state. Seeing Xu Yibai’s thin jawline, she estimated that he hadn’t eaten properly for many days and probably hadn’t rested much either, sitting here playing the piano all the time.
After all, he was her younger brother whom she had watched grow up. Even if she was angry, she couldn’t help but feel a little heartache.
Gu Yunyun turned her face away. She knew Xu Yibai couldn’t let go, so she suppressed her anger and asked, “What exactly happened between you and that omega? Are you broken up now? I’ve asked you so many times, can you at least tell me their name and show me a picture?”
“If he doesn’t like you, can’t you just snatch him away and lock him up in a room?”
Xu Yibai’s gaze turned vacant, and he unconsciously murmured, repeating the words, “…snatch him away?”
He knew it was wrong to think like that, but his heart skipped a beat inexplicably, as if it was responding to that suggestion.
Shen Yao was like a cloud that couldn’t be grasped, yet his fingers still retained the softness of their touch, lingering.
During their relationship, there were times when he enjoyed being clingy, but there were also times when he liked to play disappearing acts. Their kisses were passionate, their embraces warm, but when Xu Yibai looked into Shen Yao’s eyes, he couldn’t see what lay beneath the surface.
Now he understood that Shen Yao had never truly opened his heart. Shen Yao only showed him what he allowed him to see, hiding many secrets he refused to share. Even the fact that Shen Yao’s mother had long passed away, Xu Yibai only found out after stumbling upon it, and it wasn’t because he wanted to see Shen Yao’s wounds. He simply wanted to know more about Shen Yao, to not let him bear sadness alone. But Shen Yao never spoke.
Shen Yao was mysterious and complex. You might think he was as fragile as a delicate flower, nurtured by dependence on others, but when necessary, he could radiate a dazzling brilliance.
It was normal to fall in love with him, so he never regretted it.
Was Shen Yao rekindling an old flame with Guan Shu, which was why he wanted to break up? Or was it because of another man mentioned by Guan Shu… another alpha?
He couldn’t accept Shen Yao being with another alpha. Whenever Xu Yibai imagined that scenario, a sharp pain pierced his temples.
“Snatch him away.”
The words echoed in his mind, like the ringing of a bell in front of a temple, reverberating through the quiet forest.
Xu Yibai threw himself forward, his body crashing into the piano, producing a long and chaotic sound that didn’t stop.
Gu Yunyun was frightened and rushed to help him, but Xu Yibai avoided her.
He propped himself up on the piano, as if he couldn’t feel any pain, and stood up. Xu Yibai’s face was pale, with no color on his lips. “Sister, help me find someone.”
Gu Yunyun finally let out a sigh of relief. She had been prepared to forcefully involve herself in this matter, but she deliberately maintained a cold expression. “What’s the name?”
Xu Yibai had repeated this name countless times, engraved it in his heart, and fused it with his flesh and blood.
He had never spoken the name so softly before. “Shen Yao.”
This somewhat familiar name instantly surged through Gu Yunyun’s body like an electric current. She should have concealed her emotions, but her expression underwent drastic changes that she couldn’t control.
Gu Yunyun had a deep impression of the omega who was once by Yan Zhixing’s side. He was stunningly beautiful, unforgettable.
Xu Yibai remembered Guan Shu’s words, so he had been paying attention to Gu Yunyun’s expression from beginning to end. Her reaction now confirmed the answer in his heart.
Shen Yao didn’t just cheat once. Behind his back, how many other men did Shen Yao have?
Xu Yibai’s palm was marked with suppressed bloodstains, and his eyes seemed to hold fragments of shattered ice. “You’ve seen him, it wasn’t me who brought him back. He’s with another alpha, isn’t he?”
Gu Yunyun’s mind was in chaos. She hadn’t expected Shen Yao to have such audacity, attending her boyfriend’s family gathering with his affair partner and remaining calm when she saw him.
But then she realized that Shen Yao probably didn’t even know she was Xu Yibai’s sister, so he had no reaction.
Gu Yunyun gritted her teeth. Her initial reaction was to teach Shen Yao a lesson. She made a decisive decision. “Stop liking him. I’ll help you get back at him, make him cry and apologize to you. He must pay the price for playing with your emotions!”
“No,” Xu Yibai said.
Bloodshot veins appeared in his eyes, he had been deceived and hurt by Shen Yao too many times. This time, he couldn’t even shed tears. A buzzing sound rang in his ears, as if he had fallen into the depths of the sea.
The taste of blood surged in his throat. After swallowing it, he said each word with emphasis, “I just want to keep him locked up.”
Keeping him by his side, correcting his distorted concept of love. Teaching him that true love should be exclusive, not open to everyone.
So it’s enough to love Xu Yibai and not look at others anymore.
After Gu Yunyun left, the empty room was once again filled with his presence. Countless fragmented images played back in his mind. Sometimes it was Shen Yao smiling at him, and sometimes it was those moments when Shen Yao spoke with a cold and indifferent demeanor.
He said they had already had a perfect relationship, so they could break up. He said he would remember him forever, but would he really?
Xu Yibai didn’t believe it. He didn’t want to believe a single word Shen Yao said now.
Those words that ended the first chapter could start the second one.
Xu Yibai completely lost his sanity as he stood up from the chair. The first thing he grabbed was the sheet music on the shelf, and he forcefully smashed it onto the ground.
“Bang!”
The second item was a vase on his right, shattered into pieces on the floor, with the flowers inside long since dried up.
His eyes were bloodshot, and the scent of blue wind chimes in the air grew heavier. Xu Yibai no longer knew what he was doing; he only knew that he had to break everything around him so he could breathe.
Another muffled sound.
He forcefully pushed over a bookshelf that was half his height, and the books on it scattered on the floor, with a few pages even flying through the air.
The room was a mess, no longer the neat and orderly place it used to be, except for the untouched items on the sofa.
Xu Yibai stood in the center, feeling lost and disoriented. He had never unleashed such a hysterical outburst before; it made him feel completely unfamiliar to himself.
He walked over to the side of the sofa and knelt down, his knee accidentally hitting the broken vase shards. But Xu Yibai reached out and tightly hugged the bundle of clothes in his arms.
He hoped to catch a whiff of the apricot blossom scent from the clothes, but Shen Yao had been gone for too long, and Xu Yibai couldn’t smell anything.
“Shen Yao,” Xu Yibai murmured to himself, asking, “Why?”
Shen Yao sat in the black car, accompanied only by Chen Shuang. His vacation from the dance troupe had already come to an end, and with things settled on Yan Zhixing’s side, he was ready to return early.
He closed his eyes, thinking about Yan Zhixing’s expression from last night, feeling quite pleased. That icy face had completely shattered, unable to believe the things he had done—it was incredibly amusing.
As the car traveled back, the route was different from the one they had taken before. When Shen Yao opened his eyes again, the vehicle was already crossing a bridge.
The bridge seemed endless, draped in a vibrant red cloak. The weighty redness pressed down on Shen Yao, making it difficult for him to breathe, as if crimson blood covered his field of vision.
Shen Yao’s breathing gradually became rapid, his face growing paler. He knew he should close his eyes and alleviate this uncomfortable physiological reaction.
But he didn’t. He kept his eyes wide open, his gaze fixed on the window, until the bridge’s shadow disappeared from his sight.
He didn’t let anyone notice his reaction. He gently closed his eyes, and his heartbeat returned to a steady rhythm.
This was the land he hadn’t set foot on for seventeen years.
Shen Yao had never forgotten.
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