The timid one

William looked at them with a probing gaze.

It seemed things might be even more complicated than he had expected.

Lin Xingmo pulled Xu Chen over and crouched beside him. "It's not your fault, bro. We're fine."

Lin Xingye hadn't dared tell them that he couldn't see very clearly right now.

He reached out and felt Xu Chen, and tears instantly poured down his face. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

Xu Chen hadn't expected his getting into trouble to trigger such an intense reaction from Lin Xingye. It probably had something to do with what Xingye had been through before. "I'm fine. Really."

"What happened?" Cheng Yu ran over, panting. They were working with William: William helped them rescue people, and they helped him gather certain information.

He had heard the crying and shouting from downstairs. Thinking something had happened, he had hurried up.

Seeing Lin Xingye lying exhausted in Bo Xi's arms, he assumed the men had botched the job. "What the hell happened? Arrest these guys and interrogate them properly."

He strode over to William. "They slipped aboard posing as friends of theirs. They must have been in the country for a while."

"Who are those guys? Enemies of yours?"

William still wore his usual flippant grin. "My little brother."

Cheng Yu: ?

William looked completely unconcerned. Just as he was about to call his men over to clean up, Qi Sijing's voice suddenly came through his earpiece.

"William, watch out!"

A knife flew straight toward William.

"Die, William!"

At that moment, only An Shi and the others were standing on the outside.

An Shi hurriedly shoved down Lin Xingmo and Xu Chen, who had just stood up. Judging the distance, he suddenly reached for the knife's handle as it flew past him.

"Hss."

The man who had thrown the knife was strong. He hadn't imagined anyone would reach out to stop it, much less actually catch it.

But the knife was moving so fast that it dragged An Shi to the floor.

Bo Xi had barely stood up when someone pressed a knife against his back.

They came prepared.

The men emerged from several rooms opposite them. They must have been lying in wait for some time.

They had probably noticed something unusual happening in Huang Dao's room across the hall and stayed there waiting.

As soon as An Shi got up, the man seized him and held a knife to his throat. "William, looks like you've made plenty of good friends here."

William leaned against the table and scoffed. "Is this all Carl can do? Threaten people? Suit yourselves. They barely have anything to do with me."

"But if you kill them, you'll have a hard time getting out of the country, won't you?"

The man's expression stiffened. William was right. They had been in City A for a while; they knew who these people were.

No matter how powerful they were abroad, they didn't call the shots here.

As they remained locked in a standoff, suddenly-

"Fuck you."

Lin Xingye climbed up from the floor, his eyes red. Looking at his weakened state, Carl's men didn't consider him a threat and paid him no attention.

Who could have expected that the moment he looked up and saw a knife pressed against Bo Xi's back, he would spring forward, snatch it away, and throw a punch?

The punch caught the man completely off guard.

"Fuck, isn't he scared of knives?!"

"Holy shit, this lunatic!"

William's men seized the opportunity to strike back.

The man holding An Shi hostage was about to shout a few threats, but the instant he opened his mouth, an elbow slammed into his chin.

Before he could react, searing pain shot through his wrist as it was dislocated.

The knife fell to the floor, and a kick sent him flying.

An Shi, martial arts expert, shook out his hand, which he had almost strained, and grumbled, "My hands are worth a fortune."

William, who had been about to rescue him: ?

Cheng Yu, who had been about to help: ...

An Shi is the best!

Better pull Star away first, though.

Lin Xingye: Rage mode activated. Do not disturb.

It took considerable effort to restrain him. Even Bo Xi felt a headache coming on. Though he was touched that Lin Xingye had attacked the man for his sake, seeing Lin Xingye hurt distressed him even more.

There was no technique to his fighting. He fought as recklessly as possible, like a little lunatic gone berserk.

The man was dazed from the beating, cursing through slurred words. "He must be William's new henchman! You've kept him well hidden!"

William, who used to be called a lunatic: ...

I haven't fought like that in years, okay? This is slander!

The scene was still chaotic when Qi Sijing arrived with the ship's security staff.

That evening, he announced that they would return to port early.

"I'm very sorry, everyone. Something has happened aboard the ship, so our celebration will end early. We should reach shore tomorrow morning."

"Thank you to all the cruise ship staff for your hard work."

People buzzed with speculation.

"I heard William's enemies sneaked aboard."

"Really? I heard it happened in Huang Dao's room!"

"Someone resting on the fourth floor said people almost got killed out there!"

"I knew I heard someone crying back then!"

Qi Sinian and Ren Ruoxi, who had been resting on the fourth floor: Ha. We didn't even dare go outside.

"Feeling any better?" Bo Xi brought a glass of water over and held it out to him.

Lin Xingye took the glass and rested against the bed, his body still trembling slightly.

He had sent Lin Xingmo and Xu Chen back. The ship's doctor was examining them.

An Shi had gone to fetch a first-aid kit.

Qi Sijing and the others were dealing with the remaining mess alongside William.

An Shi soon returned and opened the first-aid kit. He instructed Bo Xi to take off Lin Xingye's shirt, then began applying medicine. "Star, what did I tell you before?"

Lin Xingye said nothing.

[Keep your emotions under control. Don't lash out.]

An Shi raised an eyebrow. Apparently, he remembered. He just didn't follow it.

Bo Xi had been staring intently at Lin Xingye's eyes. After a long while, he suddenly asked, "Star, can you not see?"

His eyes weren't focusing at all.

Lin Xingye shook his head. "I can see."

[...I can't see.]

He pressed his lips together and closed his eyes, looking as though he didn't want to speak to anyone.

Countless thoughts churned through Bo Xi's mind. He wanted desperately to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.

He simply held Lin Xingye's hand and tapped it gently.

An Shi: ?

You're getting in the way of my applying the medicine.

"All right, I'll leave you two alone." Having finished applying the medicine, An Shi packed everything away and stood to leave. "Bring him to see me at the hospital once we're off the ship."

Bo Xi nodded.

After putting his clothes back on, Lin Xingye quickly burrowed under the covers, hiding like a parrot.

He didn't know how to explain it, much less how to face them.

Because even he didn't understand what was happening to him.

He was just afraid. Terribly afraid, gripped by a panic he couldn't voice or describe.

Everything before his eyes was dark, just as it had been when he first started over.

"Hey... warm enough?"

Someone wrapped his arms around him from behind.

They nestled snugly together, warm as a furnace.

Lin Xingye buried his head deeper under the covers, his voice muffled. "I'll be fine after some sleep. I'm okay."

Bo Xi was very close. His warm breath brushed the back of Lin Xingye's neck, tickling him. Lin Xingye couldn't help shivering a couple of times, goose bumps rising over his skin.

"I know. Our Star is the best. If you don't want to talk, you don't have to. Go to sleep. When you wake up, we can go home." Bo Xi raised a hand and gently stroked his hair. "Good night."

His heart pounded fiercely.

"Why didn't you treat me this well before?"

He wanted an answer to the question buried deep in his heart.

Bo Xi's voice was gentle and low. "Because I wasn't able to protect you."

"I wasn't good enough. Not good enough to keep everyone from trying to stop me from loving you."

The Bo Family's rules were extremely strict. After his parents discovered that he paid too much attention to a man, they forced him to go abroad and handle their overseas business.

But he made their overseas business even more successful than their domestic operations.

As the Bo Family's business at home began to decline, they had no choice but to call Bo Xi back.

Yet now, Lin Xingye no longer remembered him at all. He didn't know how to enter Lin Xingye's life without frightening him.

He was cautious and thought everything through. He asked around for news of Lin Xingye, visiting places he had never been before to hear what people said about him.

He always heard someone speaking badly of him. It made him furious, but he didn't know what right he had to defend him.

To avoid suspicion, the Lin Family deliberately kept their distance from his family. He couldn't approach Lin Xingye out of nowhere, either, or people would speculate groundlessly about his intentions.

He didn't care about that, but he didn't want to hear people speak badly of Star.

In the end, he had simply overthought everything, far too much. Why had he been so timid?

"Star, I'm sorry. It turns out the one who was truly timid was me."