The midsummer sun was merciless. Zhou Ruo An stood before the grave with a plastic bag in his hand. Inside were several takeout containers, while not far away, a wild dog hoping to steal some food kept twitching its nose.
“Soup-filled yellow croaker. More than eight thousand yuan for one dish. Give it a try. Though when I ate it, I thought it was only so-so.” Opening the container, he set it in front of the grave. Zhou Ruo An took out a pack of cigarettes, tapped one into his palm, lit it, and sat down on the ground.
Blue smoke rose straight into the scorching air. His expression was as still as stagnant water.
“With scenery like this…” He exhaled a mouthful of smoke and looked toward the distant waves of wheat. “Even if I wanted to cry for you, I couldn’t.”
“You came to me in a dream yesterday and said your head hurt.” His fingers slipped into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small medicine bottle. “Painkillers. Headache, foot pain, stomachache—take one and it works.”
Unscrewing the cap, he poured the tablets out in front of the grave. “Three years.” He set down the medicine bottle and looked at the young man in the photograph. “I’ve already stayed in the Zhou family for three years.”
Zhang Jin in the photograph would forever remain twenty-two. There was little light in his eyes, and he still wore that indifferent, barely concerned expression he had before his death.
“Take someone’s money, help them avert disaster. I’ve come to give you a work report.” Zhou Ruo An flicked ash from his cigarette. “You once said scum like me could succeed no matter what tiger’s den or wolf’s lair I went into. Thanks to your lucky words, I really can ride on the shoulders of your Third Branch now and throw my weight around.”
“Your eldest brother, Zhou Bin, loves women, so I catered to his tastes and let him indulge himself. He’s only in his thirties, but his body is already ruined. Not long ago, he secretly went for a physical examination. I asked around afterward and found out that he’d actually been diagnosed with AIDS.”
“Your second brother, Zhou Zhe, is ruthless enough. To climb higher, he was even willing to scheme against his own father. I gave things a little push from behind, and now the old man has been angered into having a stroke. He can barely speak clearly, yet every day he still curses Zhou Zhe for being an unfilial son.”
“As for Zhou Zhe…” Zhou Ruo An held the cigarette between his lips and smiled. “He’s doing very well. He’s the company’s vice president now, enjoying boundless glory. His courage has grown too. Whether something should be touched or not, he wants to try everything. So all I could do was follow his wishes and place the one red line he absolutely cannot cross right in front of him.”
Tilting his head toward the horizon, Zhou Ruo An said quietly, “Soon. A greedy man won’t refuse to bite the hook.”
He stood and dusted off his trousers, then took one last look at the photograph. “Once Zhou Zhe puts on silver bracelets, our account will be settled. For your fifteen yuan, I’ve worked for three years. This deal… really wasn’t worth it.”
Walking onto the cemetery path, he waved behind himself without turning around. “I’m leaving. If there’s any news, I’ll come report to you again.”
＊
After he left the cemetery, a black sedan sat quietly by the roadside.
When Zhou Ruo An opened the car door, the person in the driver’s seat raised a hand, signaling for him to keep quiet.
The air-conditioning inside the car was blasting. Zhou Ruo An, still carrying the heat of summer all over his body, shivered. The driver was on the phone, speaking awkward, difficult French that wound through the car and made a person sleepy just listening to it.
By the time Ren Yu finally ended the international conference call, Zhou Ruo An was still pretending to nap. He started the engine, and only when the car gave a slight tremor did Zhou Ruo An crack one eye open and mutter, “So busy, Assistant Ren.”
Ren Yu glanced sideways at him. “If my boss actually put his mind toward work, I wouldn’t be this busy.”
Zhou Ruo An choked and, for once, had nothing to say.
In light of Ren Yu’s blatant insubordination, his petty-minded superior decided to take revenge. He pulled out his phone and called the director of human resources. “Director Xu, let Fu Chun Shen join the company. Yes. Have him report tomorrow.”
The car, which had only just started moving, abruptly braked to a stop. Ren Yu’s expression immediately darkened. “You’re hiring Fu Chun Shen?”
“Yes. He’s already submitted his résumé three times.”
“Wasn’t he permanently blacklisted by Shengkai?”
“What ancient history are you talking about?” Zhou Ruo An sounded faintly guilty. “Fu Chun Shen’s ability is obvious to everyone. Our company naturally appoints people according to merit.”
Ren Yu frowned deeply. “What position?”
Zhou Ruo An leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. “You’ve been working too hard lately. You’re short a secretary.”
＊
Zhou Ruo An rarely got carsick, but when he climbed out of Ren Yu’s car that day, he felt slightly dizzy.
He watched the car speed away in anger and imagined what Ren Yu would look like if he stomped his foot straight through the accelerator.
Turning around, Zhou Ruo An dialed a number. “I’ve repaid the favor I owed you. From now on, whether you succeed depends on your own ability.” The elevator button lit beneath his finger. “But if you let Ren Yu find out that I traded this position for your help, Fu Chun Shen, you can forget about getting anywhere near my assistant again in this lifetime.”
A calm voice came through the phone. “If he discovers this, I’m afraid you won’t get another chance to go near him in this lifetime either.”
“Fuck.” Zhou Ruo An expressionlessly ended the call and walked into the elevator carrying the takeout bag.
＊
The elevator stopped on the seventeenth floor, where the enormous Feiyu Group logo was impossible to miss. Someone was guarding the entrance to the president’s office, and the female secretary politely stopped Zhou Ruo An.
“Mr. Zhou, our president isn’t here.”
Zhou Ruo An sighed, walked around her, and directly pushed open the tightly closed door behind her.
The man inside the office raised his head at the sound. Beneath his buzz cut, his brows and eyes were sharp.
The instant Zhou Ruo An entered his field of vision, he frowned. “Why are you here again?”
Ignoring the man’s terrible attitude, Zhou Ruo An set the bag on the desk and spoke as he pleased. “I just went to the cemetery to see Zhang Jin. I ordered two servings of soup-filled yellow croaker from the best restaurant—one for him and one for you. Both of you are ancestors I can’t afford to offend, so naturally I have to humor you.”
The man pushed the takeout container aside. “I’ve already eaten. If there’s nothing else, go back. I still have work to do.”
Zhou Ruo An clicked his tongue, dragged over a chair, and sat across from the desk. Propping one arm against the tabletop, he rested his head on his hand and glanced at the documents in front of the man. “You didn’t even graduate from junior high school. President Lin, can you recognize all those words? Do you still remember squatting beside the street a few years ago and asking me how to read the word ‘filth’?”
At those words, the man’s expression cooled. His already unfriendly features now appeared almost fierce. “Mr. Zhou, I’ve already told you many times. Ever since I was injured, I no longer remember you, and I’ve forgotten everything that happened between us. Furthermore, I have no interest whatsoever in the past you keep describing. I even find it somewhat repulsive.”
“Lin Yi.” The light in Zhou Ruo An’s eyes gradually faded. “You remember Bai Ban. You remember Zhang Jin. You even remember the name of the owner of the barbecue place we used to visit, yet somehow you just happened to forget me?”
Lin Yi picked up his pen again and gave an answer with little sincerity. “Perhaps that means you simply weren’t that important to me.”
“Not important?” Zhou Ruo An abruptly grabbed Lin Yi’s hand and pressed it against the back of his own head. “Then where did this scar come from? When Zhou Ran Ming smashed that stone down, who risked his life to protect me?”
The scar beneath his fingertips twisted like a sleeping centipede. Lin Yi slowly lowered his hand and looked at the faint redness gathering at the corners of Zhou Ruo An’s eyes. “Perhaps the circumstances forced me to. Or maybe… you dragged me into it.”
The office suddenly fell silent, the quiet almost suffocating.
Zhou Ruo An’s thumb rubbed hard against the coin inside his pocket. He slowly said, “How many times have I told you…” Rising, he walked around the desk, forcibly turned Lin Yi’s chair toward himself, and sat astride his lap face-to-face. “You like me. You like me so much you’ve gone insane.”
His knees pressed against Lin Yi’s firm thighs as he grabbed the man’s tie and pulled him closer. “For me, you were willing to suffer anything and swallow any loss.” His fingertip poked Lin Yi’s chest. “Lin Yi, your heart and eyes were completely filled with me.”
“Is that so?” Lin Yi loosened his tie and leaned back, opening some distance between them. “That pathetic? Good thing I forgot.”
Zhou Ruo An froze. The redness at the corners of his eyes deepened.
“Mr. Zhou,” Lin Yi said coldly, “the distance between us seems to have gone beyond the bounds of normal social interaction.”
Zhou Ruo An gave a scoffing laugh. Instead of backing away, he wrapped both arms around Lin Yi’s shoulders and pressed almost completely into his embrace. Tilting his head, he let his lips brush seemingly intentionally and unintentionally past Lin Yi’s cheek, his warm breath sweeping across the shell of his ear. “Distance? Do you know what kind of distance there’s been between us?”
His fingers slid downward and pressed against Lin Yi’s chest. Zhou Ruo An’s voice was soft yet ruthless. “We’ve faced each other completely naked, chest against chest, without the slightest distance between us. We were even…”
“Negative.”
After a long silence, Zhou Ruo An finally sensed the change in Lin Yi.
The heartbeat beneath his palm grew faster and heavier, while the muscles pressed against him gradually tightened. Zhou Ruo An leaned in and lightly kissed the corner of Lin Yi’s lips.
His voice was slightly muffled. “Do you need me to help President Lin remember?”
With his shirt hem pulled loose and the fastening undone, Zhou Ruo An slowly slid down and knelt on the long-pile carpet…
His throat soon began to hurt, and the corner of his lips seemed to have split. Zhou Ruo An stubbornly carried on until the end, coughing softly afterward.
There was none of the usual soothing afterward, not even a sip of water. Lin Yi soon steadied his breathing, lowered his eyes, and asked, “Mr. Zhou, what exactly do you want?”
Zhou Ruo An raised his head and looked at the man whose expression remained cold and hard. His voice was so soft it was almost pleading. “Call me An An. Just once.”
Before the words had even finished, his neck was seized firmly. Lin Yi bent down, stared into Zhou Ruo An’s eyes, and asked, “You really want me to call you that?”
“Mm.”
“For how long?”
Their gazes met. Zhou Ruo An straightened slightly beneath the hand at his neck and kissed Lin Yi. “For as long as you want.”
The next instant, he was abruptly hauled to his feet and thrown over Lin Yi’s shoulder.
The door to the lounge attached to the office was pushed open with force, and Lin Yi tossed Zhou Ruo An onto the bed.
The wooden door slowly swung shut behind them with a click. The curtains in the lounge were drawn, leaving the room dark.
The bedside lamp suddenly came on. In the spreading light, Zhou Ruo An leaned against the headboard and put a cigarette between his lips.
“Every time we get this far, you can’t hold out anymore.” He lifted his eyelids. “Lin Yi, look at how little self-control you have.”
Lin Yi caught him by the ankle and pulled him closer. Taking away the cigarette, he kissed him hard and sent the words into the space between them. “Your acting was a little lacking this time. Last time, didn’t you cut your finger with a utility knife before shoving it into my mouth?”
Zhou Ruo An turned his head and laughed softly. “Back then, I thought you really had amnesia and had forgotten me completely. Now I’m just playing along with a pervert like you. There’s no need to cut myself again.”
He pushed Lin Yi away, turned over to pin him beneath him, and tugged at the man’s collar. “You never had amnesia at all, yet you made me coax you for two or three months. Every fucking day, I humbled myself and swallowed my pride, put up with that cold face of yours, and even had to take the initiative to deliver myself into your hands before you were finally willing to react.”
He bit the cigarette back between his lips and tugged another button of Lin Yi’s collar out of place. “At night you acted like a beast, and during the day you still put on that face for me, calling me Mr. Zhou every time and keeping me at arm’s length. By day I had to coax the cold-faced you; by night I had to coax the beastly you. And I fucking spent every day worrying, afraid that you…”
Lin Yi pulled him down and wrapped him in his arms. “Afraid I what?”
Zhou Ruo An rolled off him and leaned against the headboard to light his cigarette. He sank into the dim lamplight and smoke, silent for a long time before finally saying, “Afraid you really had forgotten me.”
“If I forgot you, wouldn’t you finally be free?” Lin Yi leaned beside him and took a drag from the same cigarette. “That was something you once wanted more than anything. Why would you be afraid?”
“…” Zhou Ruo An was momentarily speechless. After a while, he smiled. “If you forgot me, where would I find someone so useful to exploit in the future?”
With the cigarette between his lips, Lin Yi gave an “Mm.” “So it was because you were afraid you’d have no one left to exploit that you cried and kissed me over and over while I was injured and unconscious?”
“I didn’t.” Zhou Ruo An denied it in shock, then lowered his voice. “Back then… you were conscious?”
“Sometimes. I knew you were keeping watch beside me. Most of the time, though, everything was hazy. I think I even vaguely saw the Grim Reaper.”
Zhou Ruo An abruptly gripped Lin Yi’s wrist. The next moment, Lin Yi turned his hand over and held his in return. “Do you know what I heard you say that made me struggle to wake up?”
“…That if you died, I wouldn’t mourn you for three years?”
Lin Yi smiled and held him tighter. “What you said wasn’t nearly that polite. You were roaring into my ear that if I died, you’d turn around and climb into someone else’s bed. One wouldn’t be enough—you’d climb into ten or eight of them…”
Zhou Ruo An covered Lin Yi’s mouth, his face flushing slightly with embarrassment. “And that woke you up?”
Lin Yi shook his head. “I was angry, but I still couldn’t break free from the darkness in front of me. Not until you said…”
“Said what?”
“Until I heard you say… ‘Lin Yi, if you die, then there really won’t be anyone left in this world who loves Zhou Ruo An anymore.’”
“At the time, I thought, Zhou Ruo An has no father or mother and no real friends. Everyone thinks he’s a piece of scum. If I died, then truly no one would know…” Lin Yi gently kissed the young man’s lashes. “That he’s someone who can risk his life for a little cat.”
Beneath the solitary lamp, Zhou Ruo An brought the cigarette to his lips with trembling fingers. “So you fought desperately to survive?”
The cigarette was extinguished. Zhou Ruo An raised his lashes, pushed Lin Yi down again, and straddled him as he looked down. “You survived just so you could pretend to have amnesia and screw with me? I was fucking fooled by you for three whole months.”
Lin Yi let him do as he pleased and smiled. “How did you figure out I was pretending?”
“I…” Zhou Ruo An looked away, both embarrassed and furious. “When you used the electric clamps, you somehow still knew exactly how much I could take.”
Lin Yi laughed quietly. “That was my oversight.”
Slowly, he reined in his smile. Raising a hand, he touched Zhou Ruo An’s cheek, his expression cooling again. “Mr. Zhou, weren’t you going to help me remember the distance there used to be between us? Go on, then.”
Zhou Ruo An sneered. “President Lin, back then, I was on top and you were underneath. Now I’ll let you experience it for yourself.”
Snap. The light went out. Lin Yi’s voice came through the darkness. “Fine. Then I’ll experience it.”
Before long, Zhou Ruo An was begging for mercy as usual. “Lin Yi, Brother Lin… don’t. I was wrong…”
＊
On the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the Zhou family held its family banquet.
Around the round table, every member of the Zhou family wore a different expression. The First Branch was unwilling, the Second Branch watched the spectacle, and Zhou Bin of the Third Branch had grown so thin he barely resembled his former self, a sickly gloom hanging over his brows. Only Zhou Zhe, dressed entirely in plain white, poured tea unhurriedly, carrying an air of restrained satisfaction.
The main seat stood empty.
That had once been Zhou Ran Ming’s seat. By now, he had long since been sent to prison, and it seemed that no one in the family had mentioned his name for a very long time.
At six fifteen, the old clock in the residence struck heavily.
Zhou Ruo An entered the dining room to the sound of the bell. Everyone rose to greet him, and whether willingly or not, smiles were piled onto their faces.
Zhou Ruo An returned a faint smile and walked directly to the main seat before slowly sitting down. Before anyone could step forward to flatter him, he first said to Uncle Zhong, who stood nearby, “Add another chair.”
Everyone glanced around. No one was missing, and for a moment, nobody understood who the extra seat was meant for.
Once the chair had been added, the sound of a car engine shutting off came from the courtyard. Before long, the doors of the old residence opened and a tall figure stepped inside.
The man had broad shoulders and long legs, with sharp brows and eyes. When his gaze swept across everyone present, it carried an unmistakably intimidating pressure.
He slowly approached until he reached Zhou Ruo An’s side.
“Sit.” Zhou Ruo An patted the chair beside him.
After the man sat down, Zhou Ruo An raised his glass, his smile faint. “On the Mid-Autumn Festival, what we seek is reunion. I see that aside from those who are single, everyone has brought their family members. Very good. Harmonious, lively, warm.” He rested one hand on the chair beside him, his voice neither loud nor soft. “Let me introduce him. Lin Yi, president of Feiyu Group, and also… mine.”
The moment the words fell, the entire table was stunned.
There was no need to think very deeply about what Zhou Ruo An meant. Anyone could understand.
Mid-Autumn Festival. The seat beside him. Mine.
Zhou Ruo An had placed their relationship openly on the table.
Before everyone could recover from their shock, Lin Yi had already raised his wineglass. He looked around the table and said flatly, “From now on, please take care of me.”
At the hour of the full moon, the two neighboring wineglasses lightly touched.
Beneath the table, the red velvet tablecloth swayed gently as two hands clasped tightly together.
＊
“Zhou Ruo An, do you love me?”
“I don’t know. But I… don’t want to lose you.”
“And you? Do you love me?”
“I do. As long as you stand beside me, my love is the confidence that lets you act without fear.”
“What if I want to leave?”
“Die first.”
“…Fine.”
Main Story Complete