Yan Xiaodao did not regret coming here today in Ling He’s place.
He had made the right choice. He would never have allowed Ling He to come here and experience this scene himself.
What was playing on the screen was the same seventy-two hours, three days and three nights, that Gu Yaoting had previously used to threaten them.
Yan Xiaodao involuntarily took a step backward. He could not adjust to the sight at all. In the end he was still a normal person, someone who believed that the human world retained some final trace of kindness and conscience.
He finally understood the cause and effect, understood the source of all the pain in Ling He’s past. Those people were demons.
And demons existed to destroy the warmest and most beautiful things in the world, crushing, shattering, and ruining something flawless as carved jade. They did it merely to satisfy desires without boundary, to indulge the pleasure of domination and destruction, and to gratify themselves for a moment.
The scene was unbearable, like a riot of demons. Yan Xiaodao could not watch any longer. “Turn off the television.”
Gu Yaoting sneered. “Heh. You can’t handle even this, Yan Xiao?”
“Your little lover is in there. He looks frightened and helpless. Don’t you want to watch a little longer?” Gu Yaoting tipped his head back and mocked him.
Yes. There was a child in that recording.
Yan Xiaodao’s throat closed. The light in his eyes seemed to fracture and scatter, and his mind went completely blank.
The slender child had curled himself into a corner. His pale face and body nearly blended into the white wall, easy to overlook if one was not paying attention.
On the screen, an older naked man approached the terrified child while the adults around him mocked and humiliated him in a sexualized way. Yan Xiaodao could see enough to understand that the child was being abused and degraded. He did not need, or want, to watch any more of the details.
It was part of a systematic method of grooming children inside that circle: forcing them to witness sexual conduct, coercing them into sexualized behavior, breaking down boundaries, and conditioning them over years into dependence and submission. The purpose was to erase dignity and make exploitation feel inescapable. Mai Yunliang and Lu Yilun had both been shaped by that same long-running system.
Yan Xiaodao suddenly felt his stomach heave violently. He wanted to vomit.
So this was where the psychogenic vomiting came from. Conscious thought could not suppress it at all.
Of course he recognized the beautiful boy in the recording. His throat spasmed and he kept retching. He was only watching an old recording rather than witnessing it in person, yet the grief was enough to make him feel as though his mind were collapsing.
Amid Gu Yaoting’s wild laughter, Yan Xiaodao suddenly struck. A flash of white steel drove straight into the center of the television screen.
The screen shattered with a burst of crackling static, and the poisonous images finally stopped.
This had become a battle of will and psychological endurance, no longer a contest of physical strength.
In that respect, Gu Yaoting truly possessed a terrifyingly formidable mind.
Leaning back against the sofa, Gu Yaoting laughed. “Yan Xiao, I originally wanted to tell little Mr. Ling in person. Telling you is fine too. You can tell him how his mother died.”
Judging from the timeline, Gu Yaoting, that is, Zhang Tingqiang, had nothing to do with the deaths of Ling He’s parents. These details were apparently stories and rumors he had accumulated over the years.
“The three of them happened to come to Yandu back then and walked straight into the trap themselves. A father and son that beautiful were bound to attract attention. Once they arrived, there was no way they were leaving. The woman really was seriously ill and was admitted during an acute episode to one of the best hospitals in Yandu.” A chill settled over Gu Yaoting’s bronze-colored face as he calmly exposed the cruelest part of the story. “Unfortunately, entering that hospital meant falling directly into the devil’s hands. She could originally have lived several more years, but she wasn’t allowed to. They deliberately made sure she died during treatment. Curing a serious inherited illness is difficult, but making sure a sick patient dies is much easier. Alter the medication in one place, adjust a dose somewhere else, and the poor woman dies exactly when you expect her to.”
Yan Xiaodao’s entire body trembled. His words broke apart. “Why did they have to be… this cruel? Why treat a human life as nothing?”
“Because of your little lover, of course. Because Ling He was too captivating. Someone wanted to possess his father and wanted the beautiful little fish the son would become fifteen years later, so they had to find a way to keep father and son confined under their control. The woman was an obstacle. She was already seriously ill, so they simply let her die quickly. She never learned the truth and suffered less. In their eyes, that was probably even a ‘good ending.’”
A good ending.
Ling He had lost everything beautiful in his world overnight and been cast into hell.
Deep grief settled across Yan Xiaodao’s face. “Why are you telling me all this today? Why say it now? Once crimes this monstrous are exposed, the people responsible won’t be able to explain them away.”
Gu Yaoting laughed wildly. “Why wouldn’t I tell you? Why the hell should I hide anything for those pieces of human trash?”
Gu Yaoting clearly depended on that circle while constantly destroying it at the same time. Yan Xiaodao could not understand the contradiction. “You knew exactly how evil those people were. You knew how filthy that circle was. Why did you walk into it? Why join those demons?”
“Demons? Hahahaha…” Gu Yaoting laughed and looked straight at Yan Xiaodao without the slightest shame. “Because those demons sit above everyone else. They are the masters. This is the world we live in, so why pretend you and I are clean and noble? Those demons possess power and wealth people like us can barely imagine, much less enjoy. Why shouldn’t I attach myself to them, use them, and stand among them?
“Only by dealing with demons could I climb upward one step at a time. One day I could stand on their heads, piss and shit on those noble old bastards, fuck them, use the body they coveted to toy with them in return, and watch those well-dressed hypocrites smile and flatter the very endowment they prized so highly in me…
“Are kings and nobles born from some special seed? One day, I too could sit in that position! Hahahaha…
Elio’s Notes: “Are kings and nobles born from some special seed?” echoes the famous rebel cry attributed to Chen Sheng, challenging the idea that rank and power are ordained by birth.
“…”
The truth was grotesque beyond imagination.
It resembled the blackest and most absurd farce, steeped in decadence and lust. Gu Yaoting, a rough jianghu brute from a lowly background and a criminal with blood on his hands, had escaped punishment years ago and instead used his extraordinary physical endowment, sexual prowess, and natural same-sex allure to climb the steps of high society.
Yet Gu Yaoting was unruly, ruthless, and enormously capable. Even while being kept within that circle, he constantly stirred up trouble and turned his own power back against it. He was like a modern Rasputin. From beginning to end, he manipulated the people around him and openly humiliated a ruling class drowning in appetite, using their desire for him to expose the ugliest secrets hidden beneath polished clothes.
Unable to endure any more, Yan Xiaodao asked his final question. “Was Officer Lu Haocheng also murdered on your orders? Did you tell Guo Zhaobin to do it?”
Gu Yaoting spread his hands and admitted it with astonishing ease. “I had no choice. I had no grudge against Officer Lu. He barged in at the wrong time and saw the Zhao family’s big ghosts and old ghosts showing faces they could never let anyone see. Once he saw that scene, he had to be silenced.”
“All right. I understand everything now.” Yan Xiaodao nodded. “Lord Ting, I have nothing else to ask. The police have you completely surrounded. Go outside, lay down your weapons, and surrender.”
Gu Yaoting smiled. “Me? Surrender?”
Yan Xiaodao answered him with a contemptuous sneer. “Whether you surrender or not makes no difference. Once the law catches up with you, you’re unquestionably facing the death penalty.”
Several criminals behind Gu Yaoting shifted and started raising their weapons again. Yan Xiaodao said disdainfully, “The rest of you, don’t try to resist. Use your heads. The death penalty is Lord Ting’s burden alone. If you attack me and hurt me, every one of you could end up sharing that same fate. None of you are escaping today anyway. Why die for someone else when you could leave yourself a road to live?”
Those men understood the situation after hearing him. Who wanted to die alongside a desperate criminal like Gu Yaoting?
Gu Yaoting rose from the sofa, ripped open his shirt and undershirt with his bare hands, and stripped his upper body completely, exposing a broad, powerful chest.
He truly had been born with an imposing masculine physique. Had he lived in ancient times, he might have looked like some towering heavenly general. Unfortunately, born into the modern world, he had chosen no righteous road. He had sold both body and soul to demons and willingly joined them. There was no saving him now.
This was the final one-on-one confrontation, the private debt between Yan Xiaodao and Gu Yaoting.
He was fighting for Officer Lu, for Ling He, and for many others.
There were too many villains on the road ahead. If one could be dug out of the dark mud, then one would be dug out, roots and all.
The two men flashed through the room in violent motion, leaving streaks of white and black across the eye. At the edge of life and death, both exploded with astonishing force, fresh blood appearing again and again across their bodies. Everyone else retreated before the vicious pressure of the fight, backing all the way to the walls and not daring to interfere, waiting only to see who would fall.
Gu Yaoting wielded a thick iron bar with terrifying force. One blow tore open the outside of Yan Xiaodao’s upper arm.
The two of them overturned the sofa with their combined momentum. It flipped through the air and crashed heavily onto the ground, exposing a crude explosive device hidden behind it.
The bottles did not contain ordinary fuel. They had been prepared using concentrated nicotine extracted through improvised means. Lord Ting had indeed come prepared, apparently intending to use the device against Ling He.
Yan Xiaodao struck the ponytail at the back of Gu Yaoting’s head apart with one blow. His hair instantly fell loose around his face, making his already furious expression look even more savage.
Blood appeared along Yan Xiaodao’s neck and shoulders as well, and several places along his black sleeveless shirt and trousers had torn.
He suddenly drove force into Gu Yaoting’s shoulder and followed it with a kick to the chest.
Gu Yaoting’s chest was so thick and solid that the punches and kicks barely seemed to damage him. After staggering back only a few steps, he charged forward again. Yan Xiaodao did not stay tangled in the exchange. He had already chosen his position, and the moment Gu Yaoting lost balance he stepped off the man’s shoulder and sprang upward toward the ceiling.
That point happened to be directly beneath the chimney opening through which he had entered.
His hand found the weapon he had hidden at the mouth of the chimney. When he dropped back down, a razor-sharp gleam appeared in his hand, catching his opponent completely off guard.
It was the broad-bladed combat knife Ling He had returned to him several days earlier.
The blade caught a flash of dazzling sunlight. In an instant, swift as wind and lightning, Yan Xiaodao surged forward with the weapon and brought it down through the blood-bright chaos of the fight.
White steel flashed across the eye with irresistible force.
Blood sprayed outward, breaking through cobwebs and splashing the ceiling, surrounding walls, and the faces of everyone in the room. It spattered Yan Xiaodao’s forehead and chest as well.
He did not aim for a vital point. With one stroke, he cut away half of his opponent’s right hand.
At last, the locked factory doors were smashed open from outside. Police tactical officers surged into the room and disarmed everyone.
The officers swarmed Gu Yaoting, pinning the wounded, bleeding man firmly to the floor and capturing him on the spot. Even under several bodies, Gu Yaoting continued struggling defiantly, still fierce and enormously strong.
The remaining lackeys immediately dropped their weapons and crouched in the corners in surrender. None retained the slightest will or ability to fight. Anyone who resisted now would only be asking to die.
Yan Xiaodao threw the combat knife to the floor, lowered both hands, tipped his head back, and closed his eyes. To Xue Qian, who had just entered, he said, “Captain Xue, I’m surrendering too.”
Xue Qian came over, seized Yan Xiaodao, and pulled him toward the wall and away from the chaos of the arrest scene so he would not be injured by accident.
Yan Xiaodao’s face was pale and slick with sweat, his expression dazed. There was blood all over him, and it was difficult to tell whose blood it was.
Xue Qian quickly cuffed Yan Xiaodao’s hands behind his back, then signaled two officers with his eyes. “Get him into an ambulance and have those injuries treated. Don’t let him run, and don’t let him get hurt again.”
……
Several ambulances were standing by at the scene.
Yan Xiaodao leaned inside one of them while the medical staff examined, cleaned, and bandaged him. Most of the filth on his body was Gu Yaoting’s blood. His own injuries were only superficial.
Outside, the world was brilliantly sunlit. Direct light turned the street into a shimmering white haze of heat, making his vision feel even more dizzy and blurred.
He felt as though he had only just escaped from another, far crueler world. Both body and mind had been dragged through torment. His thoughts shut down, refusing to revisit anything he had seen or heard.
A familiar figure approached from the distance, moving quickly. In moments he had found the ambulance Yan Xiaodao was sitting in and jumped inside.
Exactly half an hour had passed, matching Yan Xiaodao’s earlier calculation almost to the minute. Ling He found him at precisely the time he had expected.
Ling He’s expression was grave. A large blue-purple bruise still marked the back of his neck, and he stared anxiously at all the blood covering Xiaodao.
Ling He bent and half knelt inside the rear of the ambulance, like a great cat lowering itself close. He touched Yan Xiaodao’s face and looked at him. “What did Gu Yaoting tell you?”
Yan Xiaodao had no answer.
Ling He did not even care whether Lord Ting, being lifted into the neighboring ambulance after losing so much blood, was alive or dead. None of that mattered to him. He stared urgently at Xiaodao and wanted only one answer. “What did he tell you?… How did my mother actually die?”
The listening device in the bracelet was gone. Ling He’s gaze was almost frantic with his need to hear the truth directly.
Yan Xiaodao’s eyes slowly focused again. He said softly, “Your mother died of an inherited illness. It was incurable. There was no way to save her.”
Both men fell into a painful, hoarse silence, their throats tight. Each knew perfectly well what the other understood.
“You’re not telling me. You’re not telling me the truth.” Ling He looked desolate.
“I’m sorry, Xiaohe.” Moisture suddenly gathered in Yan Xiaodao’s eyes.
“Xiaodao.” Ling He was hurting too.
How could someone as perceptive as Ling He fail to guess the truth?
“I’m sorry.” Yan Xiaodao’s eyes had gone numb, beyond his ability to control or hide, and at that instant tears spilled out.
Yan Xiaodao had almost never cried in his life and scarcely knew what tears felt like. He had not cried when two stepfathers died. He had not cried when his godfather threw himself into the sea. After seeing so much sorrow and warmth in the world, today he finally wept for Ling He. Only at the deepest point of love did he learn what it meant for his heart to ache and be ground to pieces for one person.
Regret and self-reproach rose inside him. He blamed himself for not loving Ling He deeply enough, not being considerate enough, not being gentle enough, not protecting him enough. Even a lifetime would never feel like enough.
He reached out, wanting to hold Ling He’s head, only to remember when he moved that his hands were cuffed behind his back.
Ling He immediately pulled him into his arms.
Ling He slowly tightened his embrace, holding the wounded man in front of him with shock, pain, and unbearable tenderness. Silently he soothed him and kissed away the tears running down Xiaodao’s face… He understood everything in his heart too. Xiaodao had done it all for him.
Across the four seas and every land, through a thousand autumns and ten thousand years, there would only ever be one Yan Xiaodao.