Death

"No, no." Bai Yunsheng froze for a moment, then shook his head with reddened eyes. "Falling Rain is not okay."

Feng Tingfan seemed to have expected Bai Yunsheng's reaction. He showed no anger, merely giving the people around him a subtle look.

"A bastard son wants to hide things? Don't you know that everything on you belongs to the Feng Household?"

"I knew bastard sons were beneath notice. Just look at him."

"Tingfan, I told you not to come here. It's filthy."

Bai Yunsheng had long since grown used to their mockery. "I'll make up for the birthday gift, Second Brother. I'll..."

Before he could finish, Feng Tingfan stepped forward with a dark expression and kicked Bai Yunsheng squarely in the chest. "Who allowed you to call me that?!" Bai Yunsheng was already thin and terrified. Kicked with all Feng Tingfan's strength, he rolled backward several times, his head slamming heavily into the wall. His vision went black, and he passed out immediately.

After an unknown amount of time, Bai Yunsheng finally came to in a daze. The scene before him was blurred and chaotic, but he could still tell that his room had been ransacked. The box containing Falling Rain had been casually tossed aside. His consciousness had not yet fully returned, and the fallen box lay crookedly before him. After a long five minutes, his vision finally steadied and the scene stopped blurring. Bai Yunsheng slowly raised his head and met Feng Tingfan's teasing gaze.

A turquoise necklace dangled from Feng Tingfan's fingers, swaying in the air. "I thought it was some precious gem. Turns out it's just a worthless piece of artificially dyed broken diamond." Amid laughter, Feng Tingfan tossed the necklace into someone else's hand. Falling Rain was passed around like that, accompanied by all kinds of disparaging remarks, until it finally returned to Feng Tingfan's hand.

Bai Yunsheng lowered his head, his long bangs concealing his eyes. The hand braced against the floor trembled faintly. "It's worthless, so can you give it back to me?" His tone was cautious and pleading.

Feng Tingfan tossed the necklace into the air, then casually caught it. "What if I say no?"

"Even if it's worthless, it still belongs to the Feng Household."

Bai Yunsheng bit his lip and said in an extremely quiet voice, "I'm Father's son too. And Mother left this to me. It has nothing to do with the Feng Household."

This was perhaps the bravest Bai Yunsheng had been in years. He had never contradicted Feng Tingfan like this before.

The surroundings fell silent for a moment. After a while, Bai Yunsheng heard a faint snicker. A few seconds later, the laughter disappeared. He instinctively squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for what came next. He had thought he would be beaten again, but after a long while, no pain came. He slowly opened his eyes and saw only several fragmented shadows sweep past him, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. By the time Bai Yunsheng raised his head, no one was left, including the necklace.

Realizing something, Bai Yunsheng did not hesitate. He got to his feet and chased after them. Following their retreating figures, he ran all the way to the swimming pool. He saw the necklace hanging from Feng Tingfan's finger, spinning around and around with his movements.

"Feng Tingfan." Bai Yunsheng's eyes were red. This necklace was the only thing his mother had left him. No matter what, he could not let Feng Tingfan and the others ruin it. "Give me back the necklace. Please."

The people walking ahead stopped.

Feng Tingfan turned around, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth. "Sure."

Bai Yunsheng froze, his face utterly blank. He seemed not to have expected Feng Tingfan to let him off so easily.

He had made such a show of appearing before him, then stirred up such a fuss to search out the necklace.

And now he was just giving it back?

Before Bai Yunsheng could think further, a flash of light crossed his vision. He followed it with his eyes, his pupils suddenly shrinking. As the necklace fell into the pool, he jumped in without a second thought.

Laughter rose from the shore.

The pool was deep. Soon, that laughter became hollow and unreal.

Outside, the sky was dark, and it seemed someone had dimmed the lights. The scene beneath the water was impossible to see clearly.

Using the faint light, Bai Yunsheng came up for air again and again, diving down again and again. He knew the people on shore had to be laughing at him. They were surely waiting for him to come up so they could launch their next attack.

The cold pool water was painfully biting.

The water he accidentally choked into his lungs was so acrid it made him want to vomit.

But Bai Yunsheng did not care. As long as he found the necklace, nothing else mattered.

After an unknown amount of time, Bai Yunsheng finally found the necklace at the bottom of the pool.

The instant he found it, his reddened eyes could no longer bear the grievance, and tears fell, blending into the pool water.

His strength had reached its limit, as had his body temperature. Bai Yunsheng swam toward the shore with all his might. Just as he was about to raise his head and climb out, a force pressed his head down hard. Accompanied by piercing laughter, Bai Yunsheng almost instinctively tried to push it away, but when he touched that hand, he yielded. He could not bear the consequences of hurting it.

Wait. Just wait a little longer. Once they're done playing, they'll let me go.

Bai Yunsheng stopped struggling and stared blankly at the pool tiles with his eyes open.

Perhaps Bai Yunsheng's lack of struggle bored them, and the hand pressing him down released him.

Bai Yunsheng wanted to climb up, but he had no strength left. The surface of the pool drifted farther and farther away.

The rippling water gleamed, yet the people on shore were too dim to see clearly.

A familiar, gentle female voice sounded by his ear.

"Without Mother, no one can protect you."

"Go find your brother. Your brother will never let you suffer. But you must never appear too outstanding."

"Yunsheng, you must learn to hide your edge."

"A tree that stands above the forest will be destroyed by the wind."

"All I want is for you to be safe and healthy."

"Yunsheng."

"Yunsheng, you have to be well."

The voice by his ear grew increasingly faint.

The scene before him became harder and harder to see, until he could no longer see anything at all.

After an unknown amount of time, Bai Yunsheng suddenly opened his eyes amid immense pain, only to discover that he was floating in the air.

He looked around blankly and saw the people on shore in a chaotic frenzy.

Then he saw his own corpse.

Unexpectedly, he did not feel afraid. Instead, he felt that this was the ending he deserved.

His father, Feng Yanshan, rushed over, only giving the pale-faced "Bai Yunsheng" lying on the ground a cursory glance.

"Look at what you've done!"

There was not the slightest grief on his face, not even a trace of redness in his eyes.

"You've utterly disgraced me!" After saying that, he looked at the stunned servants beside him and barked, "What are you standing around for? Carry him away! Are you waiting for more people to laugh at us?!"

Bai Yunsheng watched everything unfold below him and listened to his father's reprimands.

For the first time, he truly felt sorry for himself.

The fatherly love and familial affection he had yearned for had vanished completely beside this corpse.