Of everyone present, only Zhi Li held a pair of extremely thick over-ear headphones. He placed them over his ears and gave Lan Yin a signal. The deafening prelude began to play. The instant Lan Yin’s red lips parted, the group realized they had made the worst possible decision. Never mind Zhi Zuo Si being unable to tolerate Lan Yin’s singing—there probably was not a single living creature on Earth that could endure it. When Lan Yin normally spoke, her voice sounded alluring and pleasant, so why did it undergo such a horrifying mutation when she sang? The piercing noise was like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, inflicting unbearable torment on everyone who heard it. The number of people on the beach rapidly dwindled. Ke Bu had never known that being deaf could be such a wonderful thing. Covering his ears, which felt as though they were about to bleed, he shouted at Zhi Li, “Forget Uncle’s fighting ability—even my own fighting ability is being weakened!!” At this point, a ten-year-old child could probably kick him flying.
Zhi Zuo Si rubbed his temple with his left hand and forced icy words through his clenched teeth. “Shut up.”
Lan Yin sang her answer: “I can’t hear what you’re saying~~~~”
“Lan Yin, you’re dead.”
“I still can’t hear what you’re saying~~~”
“Then don’t blame me.” Zhi Zuo Si walked toward Ke Bu, apparently intending to end the fight quickly. Zhi Li pushed one side of his headphones away, leaving a narrow gap. “When I was three, I was the one who urinated on your new phone and destroyed everything inside it.”
Zhi Zuo Si did not respond, apparently ignoring Zhi Li’s provocation.
“When I was five, I used your important documents to fold paper airplanes.”
“When I was eight, I gave the antique family heirloom you’d treasured for twenty years to Yin to use as an ashtray.”
Zhi Zuo Si turned his head and stared at Zhi Li. “When I asked you about that, I don’t remember you giving me this answer.”
Zhi Li tilted his head with a naturally innocent expression and shrugged. “Of course I wouldn’t admit something like that.”
“When I was ten, I told everyone in my class that I’d give them one yuan for every scratch they put on your sports car, with no limit on the number of people or scratches.”
“You bastard. That was you too?”
“When I was eleven, I saw you and your secretary handling business together on the way home from school. I went back and told Yin you had another woman outside.”
Zhi Zuo Si’s brows knitted tightly. The temperature around him could clearly be felt rising. “Do you know how long she made trouble over that?”
“I do. You shouldn’t have eaten my breakfast.”
Ke Bu could not hear anything. He could hear nothing. He could not hear about this family’s daily life or their childishness. In his heart, he raised a fist and shouted what countless people were surely thinking: After getting married, never live with your in-laws!
“You’re still too inexperienced to provoke me.”
Zhi Zuo Si withdrew his gaze from Zhi Li and placed it on Ke Bu. Ke Bu retreated repeatedly. Not only had Zhi Li’s actions failed to help, they were actively lowering Ke Bu’s survival rate. Ke Bu could already predict that Zhi Zuo Si could now kill him with a single punch. He closed his eyes. Charge! Let’s fight until I die and you live! Even the idiom had developed self-awareness.
Just as Ke Bu was about to come into contact with Zhi Zuo Si, Zhi Li’s voice sounded again. “When I was thirteen, I encouraged Yin by telling her that she sang beautifully and should keep it up.”
This time, Zhi Zuo Si stopped completely. He turned around and strode toward Zhi Li. “What did you say? Say it again.”
“When I was thirteen, I encouraged Yin by telling her that she sang beautifully and should keep it up.” He actually repeated it word for word!!
“You little bastard! So you’re the reason she came to my door every night after our divorce and sang to get revenge on me!”
“If I hadn’t said that, she would’ve pestered me every day to complain about you! Besides, you thought my sketchbook was in the way and threw it in the trash, and it got taken away for recycling.”
“Could anything you draw even be understood by human beings?”
This had practically turned into a Zhi-family competition to dredge up old grievances.
Radiating cold fury, Zhi Zuo Si walked toward Zhi Li. He did not care in the slightest that he had stepped outside the circle. Zhi Li’s hands remained inside his trouser pockets without moving. Zhi Zuo Si raised a hand and struck Zhi Li hard with his fist. Zhi Li fell onto the beach. Supporting himself with one hand, he sat up and touched the blood at the corner of his mouth before raising his eyes toward Zhi Zuo Si. “You lost. Keep your promise.”
Ke Bu ran over and dropped to his knees before Zhi Li. How could he not understand that Zhi Li had taken that punch for him? Zhi Li had promised not to let anything happen to Ke Bu, but he had never promised not to let anything happen to himself. Ke Bu could imagine how painful that blow had been. His heart ached so badly that every organ in his body seemed to twist together. “Are you okay? It’s all my fault. It’s because I’m so useless.”
“Haven’t you always been useless?” The curve of Zhi Li’s lips diluted Ke Bu’s grief. His smile blossomed little by little across the golden beach like clusters of white flowers, spreading into the softest warmth in the world.
Zhi Zuo Si merely looked down at them coldly before extending his hand again. Ke Bu thought Zhi Li was about to be struck once more and tried to shield him. Unexpectedly, Zhi Zuo Si placed his hand on Zhi Li’s head and pressed down firmly twice. “You chose this path yourself. From now on, protect the person who matters to you.”
For the first time, Ke Bu saw someone treat Zhi Li that way. For the first time, he realized that Zhi Li was a child deeply loved by his parents. For the first time, he understood that although others kept their distance from Zhi Li, he had a powerful family supporting him. Their ways of expressing love might be unusual, but the feelings within them were equally beautiful.
Zhi Zuo Si looked toward Lan Yin, who had stopped singing. “You. Go back and prepare. We’re remarrying tomorrow.”
After saying that, he left.
Ke Bu remained kneeling. “Does that mean… does that count as agreeing?”
“I suppose.”
“So that means it’s settled just like that?” Ke Bu confirmed again.
“I suppose.”
“So that means I don’t have to fight anymore?” Ke Bu once again confirmed this seemingly hallucinatory fact.
This time, Zhi Li no longer wanted to answer. He stood and lightly brushed the remaining sand from his trousers. The others also packed up their things and left the beach, talking and laughing. Everyone departed as though nothing had happened, leaving behind only the kneeling statue on the sand.
A long while later, Ke Bu collapsed onto the beach, spreading himself out like the character “大.” After another long while, he sprang up, pulled off his shirt, and threw his clothes onto the sand as he ran toward the sea. “Yahoo~~!” He plunged headfirst into the water.
Lan Yin leaned over the railing of the ancient villa, smoking while staring down at the beach. “What is he getting so excited about all by himself?”
Standing beside her, Zhi Li shrugged. “Never attempt to understand the inner world of an idiot.”
The beach became lively after nightfall, filled with colorful lights and flowing crowds. The group carried a table onto the sand and set it up in front of the beach bar where Lan Yin had sung earlier. The owner was an old acquaintance of hers. People surrounded them, relaxed expressions on their faces and drinks in their hands as they listened to the bar singer’s slightly weathered voice.
Ke Bu looked around. Only Lan Yin, Zhang Luo, Zhou Xin He, and Gong Zhu were present. The others were nowhere to be seen. Could Su You Yan and Dora have already beaten each other to death?
Just as he thought this, Ke Bu heard girls whispering nearby. He widened his eyes and stared at the stage in disbelief. Chu Hao Yu and Ying Xiu Jie stood in their previous positions, while Su You Yan had taken over the keyboard and Dora sat behind the drums. One woman had bandages wrapped around her hand, while the other had bandages around her leg. Judging from the amount of bandaging, it was impossible to tell who had won or lost.
It turned out that You Yan knew how to play the keyboard. Although Ke Bu was somewhat surprised, it made sense. As the principal’s daughter, she had surely been forced to learn many things from childhood under her father’s strict demands.
Finally, Ke Bu’s gaze settled on the lead singer.
Standing amid the dim, flickering lights was a perfect face, an aura that did not belong to the mortal world spreading outward from him. Beneath the dark, ambiguous lighting, he appeared even more captivating, imperiously stealing the crowd’s gazes, breath, and astonishment.
Ke Bu uneasily asked Lan Yin beside him, “Forgive me for asking in advance, but he didn’t inherit your moving singing voice, did he?”
“You’ve never heard Zhi Li sing?”
Ke Bu honestly shook his head. Lan Yin supported her cheek with the hand holding her cigarette, her gaze remaining fixed on Zhi Li. “He didn’t inherit it from me. He inherited it from Zhi Zuo Si.”
It was difficult to imagine someone like Zhi Zuo Si singing. Seeming to understand what Ke Bu wanted to ask, Lan Yin continued, “It’s almost impossible to make that bastard sing. The only time I heard it was while I was pregnant. He sang for Zhi Li.”
Lan Yin seemed to remember something from long ago: her head resting on Zhi Zuo Si’s lap, one hand caressing the child inside her belly while Zhi Zuo Si’s beautiful voice sounded beside her ear.
“So Uncle also has such a tender side.”
Lan Yin said coldly, “I told him that if he didn’t sing, I would get an abortion.”
“…Pretend I didn’t say anything.”
Lan Yin exhaled a cloud of smoke. “That man really is strange. Whenever he does something for me, I want to do the same thing for him. But… tch~”
Although she spoke lightly and vaguely, Ke Bu was enveloped by a wave of emotion. Was that why Lan Yin wanted to sing? Love could be complicated, but it could also be simple.
The music drifted gently. Zhi Li’s voice spilled from his throat, deep and magnetic, transforming into emotion and coloring the entire beach. The waves fell silent, the crowd fell silent, and the world fell silent. Only the song remained, colliding through the darkness.
I asked him to stay, but he wouldn’t listen.
He left before I had the chance to speak.
Words that might have mended what was broken,
but now it was far too late—he had gone away.
Every night, you cry yourself to sleep,
wondering why this happened to you,
why every moment had to be so difficult.
It was hard to believe.
It isn’t over tonight.
Just give me one chance to make things right.
I might not make it through the night.
I won’t go home without you.
The memory of his breath is something I’ll never overcome.
The sounds he made kept me awake.
The weight of everything left unspoken
grew until it crushed us every day.
I felt so many things but never truly showed them.
Perhaps the worst part was that I ever let you go.
I should never have let you go.
It isn’t over tonight.
Just give me one chance to make things right.
I might not make it through the night.
I won’t go home without you.
I won’t go home without you.
I won’t go home without you.
I won’t go home without you.
I won’t go home without you.
Chu Hao Yu and Ying Xiu Jie suddenly picked up a hose each and signaled toward the backstage area. Beer sprayed from the hoses, soaking the entire cheering crowd. People laughed, shouted, and dodged. Ke Bu’s hair was drenched, but he grinned more happily than anyone else.
Zhi Li threw something from the stage into Ke Bu’s arms. Ke Bu lowered his head and looked at it, and even his heart seemed to become intoxicated. It was a piggy bank sent there the previous winter, made in the same style as Mr. Black Bear.
So this year, too, I will fill it completely with my feelings for you. Once, then once again, filling every Mr. Black Bear in the entire world.
Everyone raised the beer in their hands.
To our youth.
To our love.
To us.
Next
Futile Devices Scans 
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