Chapter 2

"Don't rush into a decision. The rankings just came out. You were first in the province, more than ten points ahead of second place. Tonight—"

"Dry-fried beef ho fun and fried shrimp tails, coming right up!" The stall owner's booming shout cut Wang Quan off. "That's everything. Enjoy."

Chi Ning looked at the colorful, fragrant dinner and was too tempted to think about anything else.

He sped up, speaking clearly and logically. "Teacher, I know you're worried about me, but I'm really not skipping the competition because I feel pressured. I just think I'm too tired right now and want to take better care of my health. Oh, the beef ho fun at the night market looks pretty good. Want me to bring you a portion?"

Wang Quan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "...No need."

Call Chi Ning rebellious, and he still remembered to bring his teacher food. Call him considerate, and... the kid had simply decided he didn't want to compete and that was that.

Chi Ning hummed, hung up, pulled a pair of disposable chopsticks from the bamboo tube beside him, ripped off the plastic wrapping, and began shoveling noodles into his mouth.

The dry-fried beef ho fun didn't look spicy, but it was full of chili oil aroma once it hit his mouth. After only a few chews, sweat poured down his face.

It was too delicious to waste. Tears streamed down his face as he ate the last bite.

The owner found it amusing. "If you can't handle spicy food, you should've told me. I could've used less chili."

Chi Ning pulled out two crisp twenty-yuan bills and handed them over. "I'll remember next time."

The owner accepted them with a broad grin and pointed the tearful student in the right direction. "Near the west gate of the night market, there's a stall selling iced bayberry juice. The one running it is a high school student. He's got a bad temper, but his stuff tastes great. If you really can't take the heat, go buy a couple of cups."

"Okay." Chi Ning slung on his backpack and hurried toward the west gate of the night market, but when he got there, he saw no high school student selling bayberry juice.

The area was silent. Plastic takeout containers slick with grease and food scraps littered the ground. Several pitch-black alleys stretched out from the main road like thin legs growing from a spider's body, frightening to look at.

A few construction workers squatted on the curb with boxed meals in their hands. They were covered in mud and water, and only their eyes shone on their faces as they shoveled food into their mouths and stared fixedly at Chi Ning.

His guard went up, and he took half a step back.

One of the workers stood and warned him in heavily accented Mandarin, "Student, just walk around up ahead. The west gate connects to the small market across the street. It's pretty chaotic there. Don't come this way."

"I heard someone here sells bayberry juice," Chi Ning said.

The workers exchanged glances. The one who had warned him seemed about to say something else, but his companion tugged him aside. In the end, he said nothing, only pointed toward the brightly lit area to the east and urged Chi Ning to leave quickly before heading into the unfinished building beside them with the other workers.

Chi Ning let out a breath of relief.

Only then did he realize that Yangcheng in the nineties was different from the civilized city it would become after later crackdowns and reforms.

More than twenty years ago, Yangcheng had yet to become the foreign trade hub it would be in the future. It was riding a wave of rapid development.

With more opportunities came more people looking for shady side hustles and gray-market deals. Going out at night wasn't nearly as safe as it would be in the future.

He immediately gave up on buying iced juice. Just as he was about to leave, an icy hand seized his ankle.

Chi Ning nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned around while forcing himself to stay calm and met a pair of eyes that shone startlingly bright in the darkness.

The boy was leaning against the wall at the mouth of an alley. He wore a pure black windbreaker, its collar raised to cover his chin. A wound from a sharp blade cut across his forehead, and blood had run all over his face.

The hand gripping his ankle felt sticky, cold, and wet. It had probably soaked through with the boy's blood.

Looking around, Chi Ning saw an overturned foam cooler beside the teenager. Several plastic bottles inside had broken, and purplish-red bayberry juice had spilled all over the ground.

Following the trail of bayberry juice, Chi Ning saw the boy's slashed pants and the flesh split open along the outside of his thigh.

The wound was horrifying. If it wasn't stitched and stopped in time, he might die here from blood loss.

Chi Ning pulled out his phone and had just dialed 120 when the grip around his ankle tightened.

Without showing it, he finished making the call and explaining the situation, then crouched down. He swiftly tore open his backpack strap, pulled off the nylon

rope from the shoulder strap, quickly tied it around the boy's upper thigh, then patted the teenager's cheek. "Hang in there. The ambulance will be here soon. Don't fall asleep."

Qin Heng opened his mouth and gasped. It was the first time in his life that someone had slapped him. The person in front of him looked like he was about to cry from the sight of all that blood, so how could he still look so calm?

For some reason, the corners of Chi Ning's eyes felt a little itchy. He raised his arm and rubbed his eyes, still watering from the chili, with the clean inner side of his sleeve. Then he casually asked, "What's your name?"

"Qin..." The boy let out the sound in a breathy whisper.

Chi Ning didn't hear him clearly and raised a hand to brush aside his hair, checking the outward appearance of his skull.

There were no dents or bleeding spots. It was beautifully shaped—he would definitely make a fine anatomical specimen after death.

After checking him, Chi Ning stared blankly at the wound on his temple.

Boss Qin, who had pursued him for half his life in his previous life, had the same scar on his temple. The man had said he got it while working part-time at a construction site in his youth. Even though he knew Chi Ning didn't believe him, he hadn't been willing to say another word.

As Chi Ning thought about it, his expression dimmed.

He had been too busy with work to date and didn't want to hold anyone else up. That was why he had rejected Qin Heng so many times, never giving him a definite answer even until his death.

It would be nice if they could meet earlier in this life. At least they could become friends sooner.

What had Qin Heng been like as a teenager? Everyone always said he had changed a lot. Could it be that he had been ugly as a child?

Chi Ning laughed at his own thought.

The ambulance siren drew closer from afar. The night market was too crowded for the vehicle to enter, so several medical workers carried a stretcher and ran all the way to the alley entrance.

He shifted his legs, numb from crouching, and only then realized that his foot was still in someone else's hand.

"Let go."

Only after his ankle was released did he notice that the red cord tied around it had gotten dirty.

A Golden Needle Hoop meant to ward off evil hung from the red cord, dangling right over the protruding bone. The boy had gripped him tightly, leaving a faint red mark on his skin from the hoop.

Chi Ning didn't want to argue with an injured person, nor did he want to meddle any further. He told the doctor, "I don't know him. I just helped make the call. I'm leaving first."

He was in a hurry to wash his feet. After speaking, he rushed back to the street entrance and hailed a taxi. The moment he got in, the phone in his pocket rang again. This time, two words lit up on the screen—Dad.

"Hello?" Chi Ning answered.

If he wanted to slack off, he had to get past his parents first.

The Chi family owned a pharmaceutical company. They had achieved quite a bit in the past and were considered one of Yangcheng's wealthy families. The media watched their every move.

There was already an older brother at home who drifted through every day. The tabloids were constantly writing about how the Chi family had no successor, and Chongning Biotechnology Company's stock had dropped considerably because of it.

Entertainment was scarce in this era, and gossip papers sold extremely well. Those media outlets were dying for something else to happen to the Chi family so they could make even more money.

"Where are you?" Chi Baichuan's steady voice entered his ears.

For some reason, Chi Ning's eyes stung. After his older brother died in an accident in his previous life, his parents had wasted away in grief. Both had been in poor health and died young. He hadn't heard his father's voice in a long time.

"I'm at the night market," Chi Ning said softly.

"The night market? Why did you go there? Did you go have dinner? What kind of dinner takes this long?"

"Mm... dry-fried beef ho fun and fried shrimp tails." Chi Ning awkwardly changed the subject. "Dad, what did you call me for?"

Chi Baichuan laughed and scolded him, "You're still asking? Your homeroom teacher came right to the house. Get home quickly."

Chapter 2

"Got it."

Chi Ning hung up, fastened his seat belt, and told the taxi driver, "West gate of Jiurong Prestige City. Sorry for the trouble, please drive faster. I'm in a hurry."

"Sure thing." The driver stepped on the gas and sped toward the destination.

Chi Ning considered his father's tone on the phone and felt that he didn't seem very angry.

But how was that possible?

In his previous life, after his brother skipped school, their father would not only put down whatever he was doing to find him personally, but would even lecture his older brother in public.

In this era, even flip phones weren't widely available. Most working-class people could only use PHS phones. The only ways to get information were television and newspapers.

Print media had yet to decline. Cheap entertainment tabloids played perfectly to everyone's love of gossip and relied on low prices and high sales volume.

But celebrities didn't have gossip every day for reporters to dig up. To make money, the paparazzi wrote about every wealthy family in Yangcheng.

The entertainment tabloid headline Chi Ning saw most often was: "Eldest Son of the Chi Family Races Late at Night, Gets Scolded So Badly by Chairman Chi That He Can't Show His Face."

Everyone in Yangcheng who read gossip tabloids knew how strict his father was.

Chi Ning thought about it all the way home but still couldn't figure out why his father wasn't angry. He could only run through the possible storm waiting for him at home and consider how to deal with it.

Lying definitely wouldn't work. Maybe he should try arguing with his father like his older brother did?

As long as he acted even more like a scoundrel, no one would want him to become the heir, right...?

Chi Ning got out of the taxi, crossed the garden, and walked to the front door. He rubbed his face, put on a defiant expression for the door, and was just about to rehearse his lines when it opened.

Chi Baichuan stood in the doorway. "You're here. Why aren't you coming in?"

Chi Ning looked at his father's young, gentle face, and his mind went blank.

He hadn't seen his parents in more than ten years. His memories of his father's appearance had long become blurry, while only the black-and-white memorial portrait in the ancestral hall remained painfully clear.

He couldn't say a single word of what he had prepared. His chest ached with sour fullness, and all the grievances from his previous life suddenly surged into his nose, so sharp that they made him want to sneeze.

Unable to hold back, Chi Ning wrapped his arms around his father's waist, buried his face against his chest, and choked out, "Dad."

The stern expression on Chi Baichuan's face immediately fell apart. At a loss, he pulled Chi Ning into the house. "Did someone wrong you?"

Chi Ning shook his head.