The fleeting incident slightly unsettled the calm Ji Li had only just regained.
On this lively New Year's Day, a kidnapping had suddenly occurred, and he had witnessed it himself.
As usual, this was not without reason.
Ji Li took a deep breath and pulled the Cigarette Case from inside his coat, but did not light a cigarette. He merely held it in his hand, because they were almost at the Seventh Branch.
The driver drove fast along the final stretch, perhaps because he, too, wanted to get home sooner and reunite with his fiancée.
Before long, the car stopped beside the bridge. When the driver turned around, he could barely contain the joy on his face.
"Happy New Year, buddy."
Ji Li drew a banknote from beneath the Cigarette Case and glanced at the bouquet on the passenger seat. As he opened the door, he finally spoke.
"Happy New Year."
Only after getting out of the car and standing on the bridge, his upper body resting against the railing, did Ji Li light the cigarette.
Beneath the vast sky, the moat had frozen over, a thick layer of snow covering its surface. It had a beauty all its own.
The night wind swept Ji Li's long hair aside and carried the drifting cigarette smoke higher and higher, until it overlapped with the fireworks blooming in the distance, then vanished beneath them.
He tilted his head back and watched the fireworks bloom for a single instant before dissolving into darkness. Suddenly, he understood something.
That shift in perspective brought him a rare sense of peace, letting him view things in motion from a place of stillness.
Yu Guo's fate had been sealed the moment he stepped into the Tianhai Hotel.
Yu Guo himself had been willing to accept that