Lately, Zhou Ruo An had been visiting Old Master Jin’s house frequently. He made himself completely at home, sticking his head into the refrigerator to rummage for food, mixing red wine worth tens of thousands of yuan a bottle with Sprite, turning an old man who had only ever played chess into a shameless card cheat, and even going upstairs to argue with a neighbor who had been making too much noise. A few sharp retorts left the other party speechless, and the woman in her seventies could only purse her toothless mouth and complain, “Oh my, Old Jin, this grandson of yours is really something—so fierce, and he doesn’t respect his elders at all.”
Old Master Jin laughed, even the tap of his cane against the floor sounding lighthearted. “As long as he respects me, that’s enough. He doesn’t need to respect everyone.” Leaning lazily against the old stair railing, Zhou Ruo An added, “If an elder doesn’t behave like one, the younger generation won’t treat them like one. Grandma, I’ll respect you next time I come. This time, though? You really don’t deserve it.”
＊
Victorious, the two of them returned home in high spirits. As soon as they stepped inside, Zhou Ruo An crouched down to help Jin Hui change his shoes.
The brown handmade leather shoes pulled back slightly. The old man looked down at him, the smile disappearing from his face. “You don’t need to do things like this to please me.”
Zhou Ruo An didn’t stop. He untied the laces, removed the leather shoes, slipped on a pair of slippers, then did the same for the other foot.
“Before I was acknowledged and returned to the Zhou family, I was raised by Old Man Ding, who collected scrap for a living. He had severe rheumatism, and his joints hurt so badly he couldn’t squat down. Every time, either I or the other kid he raised would help him change his shoes.”
Holding the slippers, Zhou Ruo An’s gaze seemed to be gently weighted down by regrets from the past. “I just… got used to it.”
After slipping the slippers onto Old Master Jin’s feet, he braced his hands against his knees and stood, his tone turning irreverent. “But if you say I’m sucking up to you, then fine, I’m sucking up to you. Old man, when people bother trying to please you, it means you’re still useful. You still have value. Stop spending every day thinking you’re old and useless and wallowing in misery. I’m embarrassed for you.”
“You little brat.” Jin Hui raised his cane and lightly swung it at Zhou Ruo An. “You’re not even fully grown yet, and you’re lecturing me?” Zhou Ruo An dodged with a grin and dropped onto the sofa. He grabbed an apple from the table, took a bite, and said through puffed cheeks, “I really do want something from you. I want to borrow your influence so I can get ahead in the Zhou family. But you don’t need to compromise yourself for me.”
Old Master Jin sat opposite him and picked up the playing cards on the coffee table, silently reciting the tricks Zhou Ruo An had taught him for cheating while casually asking, “How have I compromised myself?”
The sound of chewing stopped.
“You answered Zhou Ran Ming’s call, didn’t you?”
There was weight behind the question. The old man lifted his gaze from the cards and looked at the young man in front of him.
“How did you know I answered?”
“I guessed. Otherwise, why would the head of the Zhou family leave the seat beside him at the New Year’s Eve dinner for me?” Zhou Ruo An picked up another hand of cards, straightened them briefly, then played three cards. “You haven’t taken Zhou Ran Ming’s calls for three years. There’s no reason for you to compromise yourself for me.”
Old Master Jin studied his cards for a moment, then drew out three kings and laid them over Zhou Ruo An’s play. “Every year, only the most outstanding member of the younger Zhou generation gets to sit in that chair. Don’t you want it?”
“I do.” Zhou Ruo An clicked his tongue at the cards. “Going that big right from the start?”
He put the apple back into the fruit basket, but it slipped and fell to the floor with a dull thud.
Old Master Jin’s gaze instinctively followed it. By the time he looked back, Zhou Ruo An had already slammed down both jokers together. “Of course I want that seat, but I don’t want to sit there without a legitimate claim to it.”
The old man frowned. “How do you have both jokers? The big joker was clearly in my hand.”
He checked his cards.
The big joker was gone.
Zhou Ruo An tossed his cards aside, picked up the apple again, and resumed crunching away at it. “I stole it straight out of your hand. If your skills aren’t good enough, you can’t blame anyone else.”
Old Master Jin threw down his cards and rested both hands on his cane. “Naturally, there’s a reason you deserve that seat. You were the one who resolved the electronics factory strike, recovered the losses, and restored Shengkai Foreign Trade’s reputation in Russia. Besides that, early next year, the province is organizing a chamber of commerce event. Every prominent business figure will be invited. I’m on the guest list, and naturally, Zhou Ran Ming is too.”
Zhou Ruo An’s eyes shifted, and he immediately understood what the old man meant. “So you and Zhou Ran Ming are bound to run into each other at the event. He’s afraid you’ll snub him and turn him into a laughingstock in the industry?”
Old Master Jin didn’t deny it. “He traded me the seat beside him at the New Year’s Eve dinner in exchange for one smile from me at the event. I agreed.”
His graying hair trembled slightly as he spoke with unmistakable pride. “Now tell me. Are you qualified to sit in that seat?”
Zhou Ruo An thought it through as he spoke. “You agreed to give Zhou Ran Ming a smile because of me. Looking at it narrowly, I helped Zhou Ran Ming salvage his personal reputation. Looking at the bigger picture, because of me, Shengkai Foreign Trade shook off its reputation for ingratitude.” Having sorted out the logic, Zhou Ruo An arrogantly crossed his legs. “If I don’t sit in that chair, who will? Who else has a backer as powerful as mine?”
Old Master Jin scoffed. “And this is how you treat your backer?”
When Zhou Ruo An genuinely smiled, his eyes curved. “I won’t steal your cards anymore.” He picked up the big joker and handed it back to the old man. “From now on, no matter how clumsy your cheating is, I’ll pretend I don’t see it.”
＊
On New Year’s Eve, someone was setting off firecrackers in the alley.
Dressed in a bespoke formal suit, Zhou Ruo An sprinted wildly through the streets like prey driven into a dead end, doing everything he could to escape the men pursuing him.
He stepped on an unlit string of firecrackers, shoved aside a man holding a cigarette, then knocked over some old furniture piled in the alley in his panic.
He had no time to care. Looking over his shoulder as he ran, he saw that the men chasing him had already turned into the narrow alley. The unlit firecrackers were trampled several more times, crushed to pieces before they ever had a chance to go off.
Hearing the footsteps drawing steadily closer, Zhou Ruo An frantically pulled out his phone and, retreating against the cold wind, quickly pressed the speed-dial button.
The wind howled endlessly. No one answered. Every nerve in Zhou Ruo An’s body stretched taut as he ran forward with his phone raised, like a dog driven from its home with nowhere left to go.
“Pick up… pick up… hurry up and answer…”
Finally, just before the call disconnected automatically, someone answered.
Before the other side could speak, Zhou Ruo An shouted into the wind, “Lin Yi, save me!”
＊
Zhou Ruo An’s phone was confiscated, and he was trapped inside an unsafe, dilapidated building.
The room was dark, with only a single window. Outside it lay nothing but endless night.
Whenever someone nearby set off fireworks, several fierce silhouettes briefly appeared in the darkness, some standing, some crouching, keeping watch from a distance. They tilted their heads toward the window, their stares sharp enough to make his skin ache.
When the fireworks faded, those men and their gazes sank back into the darkness, like beasts circling unseen. You never knew which artery they were watching.
About twenty minutes later, Zhou Ruo An heard faint voices outside. A little while afterward, steady footsteps drew closer and stopped beyond the door.
Then came the metallic snap of a lighter opening. Someone lit a cigarette, the lid clicked shut again, and only then did the battered door riddled with holes slowly creak open.
The room remained pitch-black. The man’s face was buried in the darkness, impossible to make out clearly, yet Zhou Ruo An visibly relaxed. The moment his gaze landed on that silhouette, his panicked heart suddenly settled.
He instinctively stepped forward. “Those people have been guarding the place the whole time. How did you get in?”
The man took out his phone and switched on the flashlight. Under the harsh beam, his sharp features looked even more sinister, perfectly suited to the coldness in his voice.
“We’re all in the same shady line of work. There’s bound to be some overlap. We give each other a little face. They let me come in, but they won’t let me take you out.” Lin Yi removed the cigarette from his mouth, lifted his eyes slightly, and only then properly looked Zhou Ruo An over. “What trouble did you get yourself into this time?”
Zhou Ruo An rummaged through Lin Yi’s cigarettes, pulled one out, and bit it viciously between his teeth. “Today is New Year’s Eve. Someone doesn’t want me attending the Zhou family dinner and sitting beside the head of the Zhou family.”
“Who doesn’t?”
Zhou Ruo An shrugged. “Who knows? Could be Zhou Bin or Zhou Zhe. But my guess is Zhou Bin. This feels exactly like something that brainless idiot would do.”
“No wonder the people outside aren’t hurting you. They’re only keeping you trapped here and refusing to let you leave.” Having understood the situation, Lin Yi turned toward the door. “So you don’t need to worry about your safety. In another two hours, they’ll let you go.”
Zhou Ruo An grabbed him. “Lin Yi! I need to get out.” He added, “Right now.”
Lin Yi glanced at the hand gripping his sleeve and asked flatly, “Has Young Master Zhou forgotten? The accounts between us are already settled.”
“I’ll pay you.” Zhou Ruo An’s gaze was stubborn to the point of obsession. “Tonight, I have to sit in that chair beside Zhou Ran Ming.”
Only after a long silence did Lin Yi’s voice sound again through the empty old building. “Zhou Ruo An, you know what I want.”
The hand gripping Lin Yi’s sleeve trembled, loosening slightly.
“Lin Yi, can’t we just talk money? You can use this chance to extort a tidy sum from me.” Lin Yi took a drag from his cigarette. The ember brightened, looking strangely eerie in the dark, ruined house.
“I forgot to wish you a Happy New Year. How about I give you a cigarette-burn scar as your New Year’s gift?”
Holding the cigarette between his thumb and forefinger, he lowered it.
“Lin Yi!” Zhou Ruo An’s breathing turned uneven. “Is there really no other road left for us?”
Ash fell onto the back of his hand, making Zhou Ruo An flinch. “Wait. I need… to think.”
The cigarette stopped halfway down. Lin Yi looked impatient. “Decide quickly. I’ve got a New Year’s Eve dinner waiting for me too.”
The sound of firecrackers outside grew denser. Zhou Ruo An glanced at the time, then lowered his eyes. “What do you want me to do?”
Under the flashlight, Zhou Ruo An’s lashes cast long, heavy shadows. Lin Yi watched that patch of darkness and said slowly, “Do you remember what I taught you in the warehouse last time?”
Zhou Ruo An abruptly raised his head and met Lin Yi’s gaze.
“I told you to review it properly. Do that first. If I’m satisfied, then there’s more for us to talk about.”
The expensive watch beneath Zhou Ruo An’s cuff had been designed to run silently; even pressing an ear against the dial wouldn’t let him hear time passing. Yet now, the movement of its hands seemed to merge with the pounding of his pulse, striking against his eardrums again and again, urging his panic higher.
The fabric of Lin Yi’s sleeve wrinkled beneath Zhou Ruo An’s grip. Step by step, Zhou Ruo An edged forward, holding his breath as he slowly pressed himself against that broad chest.
The next instant, he was pushed away without mercy. “If you’re unwilling, forget it,” Lin Yi said.
“Wait.” Zhou Ruo An drew a deep breath. “Are you sure you can get me out?”
The reply held no warmth. “You can choose not to believe me.”
Zhou Ruo An released Lin Yi’s sleeve. He softened his body, wrapped both arms around Lin Yi’s waist, and slowly, gently leaned into his embrace.
“Are you willing?”
“Mm.”
“Hold tighter.”
His arms tightened, and Zhou Ruo An buried his face against Lin Yi’s shoulder…