You'll Take Responsibility?

Shu Sizhuo didn't take the lighter Tong Zhao held out. Instead, he studied him with interest. "I drove all this way and made it to your door. Aren't you going to invite me in?"

"That's why you should have called me first to make sure you'd left the lighter with me. I could have brought it to you tomorrow, and you wouldn't have had to come all this way."

Silence fell after Tong Zhao finished speaking.

The walls on each floor were made of perforated stone bricks, and Tong Zhao had left his living room window open. The cross breeze of the autumn night blew through with a rush, sending waves of chill through the air.

Shu Sizhuo took the lighter and slipped it into his pocket, but he didn't turn to leave.

Tong Zhao looked away. "It's late, President Shu. Drive safely." With that, he gripped the handle and shut the door.

The gap was narrowing, and the door was about to close completely, when a hand with prominent knuckles suddenly slipped through and grabbed the frame.

Tong Zhao was horrified, but he couldn't stop in time. He watched helplessly as the door slammed hard on Shu Sizhuo's fingers.

Tong Zhao yanked the door open and quickly took Shu Sizhuo's hand in his. All four of his long fingers had turned red and swollen in an instant.

"What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?!" Tong Zhao rarely lost his temper, but he grabbed Shu Sizhuo by the wrist and pulled him inside, his voice trembling with anger at the end.

He pulled Shu Sizhuo over to the sofa and sat him down, then turned to look for the first-aid kit.

Shu Sizhuo didn't even frown. Having gotten his way, he leaned back on the sofa and watched Tong Zhao rush around in a panic with satisfaction.

Tong Zhao had only just transmigrated, so the first-aid kit wasn't fully stocked. He found some povidone-iodine and gauze, sat down beside Shu Sizhuo, and carefully disinfected his hand before wrapping the four swollen fingers in gauze.

There happened to be some anti-inflammatory medicine at home. Tong Zhao poured a glass of water, broke off two pills, and handed them to Shu Sizhuo. "Take these."

Shu Sizhuo took the glass, then looked at him and opened his mouth.

Tong Zhao paused and looked down. Shu Sizhuo had the glass in one hand and the other wrapped in gauze, so he really didn't have a hand to spare.

Tong Zhao had no choice but to feed him the pills.

After Shu Sizhuo took the medicine, the atmosphere fell strangely quiet for a moment again.

Tong Zhao put the first-aid kit away and turned to face Shu Sizhuo. "Keep an eye on your fingers when you get back. If they still hurt, get an X-ray to see if you've injured the bones."

"What if I have? Will you take responsibility?" Shu Sizhuo asked.

Tong Zhao was momentarily at a loss. "Fine," he stammered. "I'll reimburse you for the medical expenses if that happens." He quickly calculated how much money he had left. Of course, he hoped even more that Shu Sizhuo's hand would be fine.

Shu Sizhuo gave a soft, derisive laugh, as though he'd heard a joke.

Tong Zhao looked at him again. "Then... you should go home. I'll walk you downstairs."

Shu Sizhuo held up his hand. "I can't drive."

Tong Zhao: "..."

The two stared at each other. Tong Zhao said, "I can drive. Do you mind if I drive your car? I'll take you home."

"I do mind."

That shut Tong Zhao down completely. He stared at Shu Sizhuo and frowned. "Then what exactly do you want?"

Shu Sizhuo smiled again, but his gaze was cold. "Tong Zhao, are you avoiding me?"

Tong Zhao: "..."

Shu Sizhuo rose and slowly walked toward Tong Zhao. "You've figured out what I'm after?"

"What are you after?" Tong Zhao asked, bewildered.

He was avoiding Shu Sizhuo because he was afraid he would lose control, that he would be too selfish and break the main hospital's rules, upsetting the balance of this world as well.

As Shu Sizhuo approached him step by step, Tong Zhao backed away without realizing it, only stopping when his back hit the partition.

Shu Sizhuo stood before him, looking down at him with an intensely oppressive presence. He stared into Tong Zhao's eyes and said bluntly, "I hear you've only just joined Purple Goosefoot, and you're already in a hurry to find resources for yourself and your friend. Tong Zhao, surely you know I'm the biggest source of capital around?"

There was a lot to take in. Something was on the verge of surfacing in Tong Zhao's heart. He looked at Shu Sizhuo. "...So?"

Shu Sizhuo gripped his wrist. His eyes were pitch-black, and Tong Zhao couldn't make out the emotions in them.

"I'm busy with work every day. If I hadn't made a point of it, how could we have had so many chance encounters? Tong Zhao, I need someone by my side."

Shu Sizhuo's voice was low as he said this, with a hint of flippancy.

Like a stone crashing into a tranquil lake, the words set Tong Zhao's head buzzing. He even began to stammer. "What... do you mean?"

"What do you think?"

Tong Zhao's eyes trembled slightly with disbelief. "You don't mean... you want to keep me?"

Tong Zhao knew it had been eight years. There was no way Shu Sizhuo could still be thinking of him after all that time. He was just someone from Shu Sizhuo's past who occasionally crossed his mind. They had never even taken a photo together, and Shu Sizhuo's memory of what he looked like had even grown hazy.

Even so, when Shu Sizhuo made such a proposal to him after they had met only a few times, Tong Zhao still found it hard to breathe.

He couldn't help wondering how many boys Shu Sizhuo had found over the past eight years. How many little lovers had he taken?

The pressure on his arm barely pulled Tong Zhao out of his tangled thoughts. He saw Shu Sizhuo tilt his head slightly. "You're not willing?"

Tong Zhao quietly curled his fingers into a tight fist, his smile a little stiff. "President Shu, you like men?"

At the question, a mocking look appeared in Shu Sizhuo's eyes.

Tong Zhao said irritably, "What's so good about men? You're the head of the Shu Group. You'll have to get married and have children someday. Don't be foolish, President Shu!"

Shu Sizhuo's expression shifted. Then, as though he'd heard the funniest joke in the world, he burst out laughing. He laughed louder and louder until he doubled over, leaning against Tong Zhao's shoulder and rubbing away the tears of laughter at the corners of his eyes.

How funny.

A man who had been in a relationship with him was asking him what was so good about men. Hahaha, it was simply too funny. It was the funniest joke he'd heard in eight years.

Tong Zhao didn't know what Shu Sizhuo was laughing at. He was angry—angry at Shu Sizhuo for treating life like a game, and angry at himself for being the one responsible.

Shu Sizhuo gradually stopped laughing and straightened up. A smile lingered on his lips, but his gaze was strange. "Tong Zhao, you still haven't answered me. Are you willing to be with me?"

"No." Tong Zhao turned his head away.

Shu Sizhuo stared at him. "Why?"

"No reason."

Tong Zhao's profile was cold and merciless, just as it was in the nightmares Shu Sizhuo often had.

Rejection, denial, cruelty, abandonment.

His fingertips began to tremble reflexively. Shu Sizhuo's heart raced like a drum, and the image of Tong Zhao before him doubled.

This is the real Tong Zhao.

Or is he fake?

Shu Sizhuo knew an episode was coming on. Before he could crush Tong Zhao's wrist, he hurriedly let go. He took one last look at him, then turned and strode away.

Bang.

The door slammed shut.

Tong Zhao's tense muscles went limp in an instant.

After standing there in a daze for a few seconds, he hurried to the balcony. He waited a while before he saw Shu Sizhuo striding toward the entrance of the residential complex.

"Shu Sizhuo, of all the things you could have learned, you had to learn to take little lovers," Tong Zhao muttered bitterly, his face full of grievance. "You were so well-behaved when you were little..." He paused. "You were well-behaved at nineteen, too..."

Tong Zhao slumped over the balcony railing and buried his face in his arms.

He couldn't put his feelings into words. He suddenly remembered Hua Xiaotang saying that Shu Sizhuo had no interest in women but would spare men a few glances... Now that he thought about it, just how many men had Shu Sizhuo looked at, and how many little lovers had he taken, to make the main hospital so anxious?